


Sleep

by FangirlDreamerKC



Category: Banana Bus Squad
Genre: Creative, F/M, GTA, Gmod, Grand theft auto, Prop Hunt, Prophunt, Sleep, gang beasts, gangbeasts, garrys mod, vr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-03 19:31:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 35
Words: 38,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8727436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FangirlDreamerKC/pseuds/FangirlDreamerKC
Summary: A banana bus squad fanfiction.Luna falls asleep, and when she wakes, she's in a completely different spot. A familiar spot. Could it be... The GTA V hospital? This doesn't make sense.NOT A GTA AU





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Welcome to Sleep.
> 
> This is one of the first stories I've ever written, tied first with another called Darkness.
> 
> Both books took a fair bit of time and effort and I'm proud of myself for writing them, and I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Remember that this was me adjusting to writing. I'd never written anything longer than two chapters before this.
> 
> Don't let this deter you, it's just a reminder. (:
> 
> Disclaimer that I only use the title/term BBS as a way to refer to the people as a whole. I appreciate each person involved as separate creators with their own channels and styles.  
> Also I obviously don't own them or any of the games, however the story/plot and original character are mine.

Yawning, I placed my controller down on the edge of the couch, standing to stretch my back and hearing cracks. The Tv screen illuminates the dark room, but slightly irritates my blue eyes. Rubbing under them with a yawn, I make my way towards the bathroom to use the toilet. 

When I finish, I stand in front of the mirror, washing my hands and looking through the window to my left, watching the stars twinkle in the sky. 

I really need to fix my sleeping schedule.

Shaking my hands off, I rolled the hair band from my wrist, pulling my brown waves into a messy braid down the centre of my head as I walk back towards my lounge room.

Dropping into the couch, I looked up at my game of GTA V on the screen. Blinking at the bright light, I again closed my eyes, gently resting my head against the side of the couch. Shivering slightly, I curled in a ball, too lazy to get a jumper to cover the black singlet I had on. I'd left my red converse on in attempts to keep my feet warm earlier, and I was grateful I had. 

Snuggling into the couch some more, I drifted to sleep.  
_________

Blinking into the bright sun, I looked around me. I was in front of a familiar building, near a road, in a busy city.

This is cool, I've never dreamed so vividly before. Is this what a lucid dream is?

Smiling, I walked toward the sounds of cars. A loud explosion sounded in the distance, causing me to jump sideways. Biting my lip, I looked to the direction the sound had come from, cracking my knuckles as a nervous habit. 

The sound of feet scratching on the ground behind me made me turn, only to catch sight of a man in a pink polo and white shorts.

My jaw dropped. 

That's SilentDroidd, for sure. So, this is GTA? Explains why the hospital was familiar.

Watching him with avid curiosity, I saw a shotgun materialise in his hands. A grin spread across my face as I looked down to my own hands, only to notice my appearance. 

I was wearing the same clothes as when I fell asleep. The same black Canterbury tracksuits, the same red Converse. 

What caught my attention, was the bulky looking watch on my wrist. Lifting my arm, I studied it, frowning. Should it not feel heavy? There was no weight at all, as if it weren't there. Raising my other hand to it, I gasped as my hand came closer.

A holographic map opened up in front of me, and I'm not sure my blue eyes could get wider. Shifting my hand to the side, a cell phone menu instead came up. My amazement with the technology distracted me, almost causing me to miss Droidd starting to run off.

Dropping my arm, the holograms immediately disappeared, and I took off after him. 

Trailing a few metres behind him, I turned the corner he had just turned, only to stumble to a stop as I watched him get run over by a sleek black car. As he started to stand, the car reversed back over him with a loud thud. 

Feeling a little sickened, I froze where I was, watching the still body on the ground.

Until it disappeared.

Relief flooded me as I remembered I was in a dream. Game logic says he would respawn, right? And he didn't seem to actually get hurt at all.

Walking toward the car, I watched as Moo Snuckel climbed out from behind the driver seat. Brock's character wore the typical rainbow shirt and blue pants ensemble, with his glasses resting over his eyes. 

Curiosity got the best of me as I ran forward. 

"Moo! Hey, Moo! Is that actually you?"

Coming to a stop beside him, the man quickly spun to face me, simply standing. And staring. 

Feeling awkward, I raised my hand to the back of my neck.

"No? Erm, sorry if I'm interrupting something?"

When he just continued to stare, I began to blush, again cracking my knuckles. 

Hearing a car pull up beside me, I looked over my shoulder to see VanossGaming, I Am Wildcat, and H2O Delirious climb out. 

"Hey guys, I just came up to say hi and I think I annoyed Brock..." I trailed off, watching as they all stood staring at me too. 

I started backing up slowly, but I bumped into Droidd and scared myself, jumping forward while apologising.

"Sorry! I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. Or like, to annoy you-"

My rambling was cut off when the thing on my wrist buzzed. Looking around at the motionless people, I slowly raised it up.

"Vanoss- hi, can you see this?"

Looking towards the character with a red jacket and sunnies, I frowned.

"How did you do that? You don't have one. Is it like a text thing? But you didn't have a phone out..."

It buzzed again.

"Wildcat- how are you in our game"

I looked at it in utter confusion, before looking up to the pig masked man.

"Wildcat- are you hacking?"

"Uhm, fuck. Ok, if this is a lucid dream, how the fuck do I control it?" I asked myself, as I started pacing between the characters.

"Vanoss- How are you putting through the audio?"

Glancing at the message on my wrist, I looked across at him, grumbling in frustration.

After a seconds silence as I paced, the character with a hockey mask and blue jacked walked forward, swinging a fist into my face. 

It connected with a sickening crack as blood started to drizzle from my nose and tears collected in my eyes.

Another fist was swung but I tripped backwards and fell onto my butt, avoiding the attack. A few other characters started moving around, Moo climbing onto the car beside him and Daithi De Nogla running up beside me, surprising me as I hadn't seen him before. 

H2O Delirious' character froze in front of me, as I cupped my hands under my nose and fought to hold back a sob. 

If this was a dream, why was my damn nose hurting so much? Why did the blood feel so warm and real on my hands? Looking up at the now motionless Delirious in front of me, I let a few tears slip. 

"Nogla- I can hear you crying. Please stop crying."

I read the message from the corner of my eye, hands still catching the slowing blood. 

Moving onto my knees as I tried to calm my breathing, I leaned forward and opened my hands, letting my nose drip onto the road as I wiped my gross palms off into the tar as best I could. 

Wiping under my nose, I looked up to Nogla, chuckling lightly as a few tears slipped along my cheek. 

"Maybe it's not a dream, this hurts"


	2. Chapter 2

If Droidd didn't get hurt, why did I? Why am I bleeding like this? Normally the characters don't actually have injury animations.

Another message popped up.

"Nogla- so you can see the text chat, can you hear us?"

Wiping away as much of the almost dried blood as I could with my knee, I looked up from my sitting position to Nogla.

"You haven't even opened your mouths, any of you. I tried talking to you and just got punched! Stupid fucking dream" I growled, now more frustrated than excited.

The people stood still beside me, with a few others running around in circles nearby while they listened. 

"Delirious- The characters mouths don't move"

"Nogla- dream?"

Scowling up at the two, I pushed myself to my feet, to glare at the hockey mask covering Delirious' face. 

"Yes, dream! How the fuck do I wake up? I thought pain was meant to work, but my nose is fucking killing and I'm still here"

Nogla's character spun in a few circles as Wildcat ran over to us.

"Wildcat- are you actually retarded?"

Letting out a frustrated grunt, I turned and glared at the pink masked man.

"Vanoss- so while I don't believe someones in our game, it's a bit weird"

"Vanoss- she doesn't act like a normal character"

Looking up from my wrist, I looked over at Vanoss on top of their car bonnet. 

"Please just stop, I'm meant to be able to control my own dream. This is just kinda scary" I muttered, looking down at my wrist to see if I could make a text to speech setup.

"Wildcat- this isn't a dream dude, we're playing gta" 

Small tears started to build up in my eyes as I blinked to hold them back. Bringing up a settings thing, I ignored the message.

"Nogla- what is that?"

I continued to ignore them, trying to not cry. This is more like a nightmare.

"Delirious- sorry for punching you?"

At that, the tears broke free, and my throat tightened. All I could do was hope my crying remained silent.

"Found it" going to tap the text to speech, I was shocked when my finger came into contact with a hard feeling, instead of phasing through the screen. Sliding across, I looked up at the characters.

"There, type now"

"You're crying" was the first thing that came through, and I somehow knew it was from Droidd, despite the robotic voice. 

Wiping my eyes, I looked across at him, and shrugged.

"What is that?" Again came from Nogla, as his character raised his arm to point to mine.

"I woke up with it. It has like all the menu and stuff, and the phone. I just put text to speech on with it"

A loud explosion sound scared the shit out of me as I stumbled forward from the shock, looking back to see a cop cars black shell on fire. A star popped up on my watch and I frowned at it, looking up to Moo who had a sub machine gun in his arms as he ran to one of the cars they came in. 

Panicking, I started running as an officer starting moving towards me with a baton out. 

Hearing gun shots, I glanced over my shoulder to see a bloody body on the ground, with Evan, VanossGaming, standing over it. 

The character quickly T-bagged the corpse before running toward me, and I couldn't help the loud laugh that escaped me. He jumped into a car and started it, before he turned to me.

"Get in"

Quickly opening the back door, I slid onto the leather seats of the vehicle. 

The car took off at an insane pace that had me gripping the front seats as my stomach lurched. Quickly clipping the seatbelt shut to stop from being thrown on the corners, I glanced out the back window. A car with Delirious in the front seat tailed us, Droidd leaning out a window to shoot at pursuing cop cars. A sticky bomb flew from the window of his passenger side, and as Wildcats bomb exploded, my watch vibrated. 

Second star.

"Can we just lose notoriety? I don't feel like being involved in a cop chase"

Looking forward to Vanoss who spun the wheel at a fast pace, I was thrown against the seatbelt roughly. That'd probably bruise.

"Especially because I'm not sure I'll respawn if I die."

With no reply from Evan, I glanced back as the car behind us kept going, not taking the left we had.

"Can you like, not speak? Oh wait, cos you need to "type" yeah? And can't do that while driving"

I held up my fingers for the bunny ears when I said type, still not believing this wasn't a dream. 

Swerving another sharp corner, I cried out as I was thrown again, but locked my jaw to hide the pain.

"Please don't crash though, I get normally it's not a big deal, but I'm genuinely not a character and really don't fancy losing my life in a dream" 

I explained to dream Evan as I tried to stay more still on the turns. I had to admit though, the adrenaline pumping through my veins had a small smile on my face despite my panic. 

The car came to a jerking halt out front of the building I recognised as Evans place. As his character climbed out of the car, I followed, holding a hand to my ribs as I painted lightly.

"You ok?" I looked up to the owl mask, nodding my head.

"M' fine" I gasped out, trying to even out my breathing. He headed through the door of his building, and I went to follow. 

As I stepped through the door, everything faded to black for the briefest second, but when I blinked I was in front of his door, standing inside the apartment. Looking outside the window, I saw I was suddenly floors above where I previously was.

For a second, I thought- how cool, I just teleported.

But that thought faded when the dizziness over took.

The ground started to wobble and I reached a hand out to grab something to steady myself.

Only to crash to the ground in a wave of black.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder that this was not only the first sorry I've ever written, but also wasn't edited. Please ignore any minor mistakes, this hopefully won't be the case in future books.

Rubbing my head, I looked up from the ground where I was laying. All the characters from before stood around, drinking or getting high.

Feeling mildly dizzy still, I pushed myself to my feet. Must've hit my head.

Walking towards the couch, I shuffled past Moo and Nogla, and dropped down against it, next to Delirious. 

Immediately, the talking started.

"Sorry I couldn't catch you"

"Are you ok?"

"This is so weird"

"We couldn't pick you up"

"She lives!"

Grunting, I shook my wrist with the watch on it.

"I shouldn't have put on text to speech. Will you all shut up for a second?!" Cradling my head, I looked across to Delirious, noticing he no longer had the mask on, and now his clown makeup covered fave was revealed.

"I wonder" they all watched quietly as I reached a finger up to the characters face, sliding it along his cheek.

It left a long smudged line, and white on my finger. I could actually interact with them. Just like they were normal people.

Everything felt so REAL.

My head started throbbing as I started thinking, and I raised a hand to rub my temple as I examined the paint on my finger.

"I can touch you all, like you're real."

Again, I was reminded by Vanoss;

"You're in our game."

Sighing, I wiped my finger off on my pants, and looked across at the character model. Then stopped to think. Say this were a game, where would his view be angled. Considering Moo and Nogla were to his right and blocking view, and he would be looking at me, that'd mean he'd be angled left, right?

Looking to where my guess was, I stared at the area, as if staring into space. It felt a little awkward, but I held my ground against the dream people. 

"If this is real, who am I looking at, huh? I should be looking right at one of you. Can you prove to me I'm not dreaming?"

Technically, it didn't make sense. If it were a dream, they'd be figments of my imagination and therefore know whatever I knew. But I was stubborn. 

"You're looking at me. It's kinda creepy." Came from Vanoss, but I just brushed it off. 

"You're my dream, of course you'd know what I'm thinking." I argued. A sudden realisation of how silly this was flooded my mind. If he's my dream, am I technically arguing with myself?

"Fuck sake! Why don't we just kick them out? Or quit game? They could be hacking" said wildcat. I almost chuckled at the more monotone voice that it came through as, when he was clearly frustrated and would probably be shouting if he could actually say it. 

But then I frowned. What would happen to me if the did quit out? CAN they kick me?

"We can't kick them, I tried when this all started" I could almost hear the eye roll from Moo as he typed that. Of course he'd already tried.

Droid wobbled his character towards me, evidentially super drunk.

"Can we keep the chica? Maybe it's a glitch or Easter egg. She's a cute pet"

Glaring up at him, I stuck my tongue. It was immature, but I was sure it'd get the message across that I didn't agree with being a pet. Plus, it was mildly satisfying being childish. 

"I'm not a glitch! I'm a fucking living, breathing human!"

Nogla, who had been silent since I'd woken up, spoke. Or, typed.

"I know it's insane for someone to be in the game, but it's a bit odd. Characters can't exactly interact with things how she is" he said, raising his characters arm to point at Delirious' face. 

There was a pause in all conversation for a while, before Nogla's character disappeared. 

What happened? Had he disconnected? 

Realising they were probably talking amongst themselves and that I couldn't hear it, I assumed they'd argued and Nogla had rage quit. 

Damn, the only one almost on my side.

Tears again started building in my eyes as I stood up from the couch, walking towards the alcohol. 

Normally, I didn't cry too much, but this was scaring me. I was confused and anxious and just wanted to drink away some of my concern.

Picking up a glass, I threw back a shot that burned it's way down my throat, filling up a second as I cringed. Putting the lid back on the bottle, I walked back to the couch with the drink, swirling the liquid to entertain myself. 

Randomly, Delirious stood from the couch and walked towards the bottle, and my blue eyes tracked his movements. Standing in front of it, he did nothing. Furrowing my eyebrows, I looked around to see Droid walking towards him. He stepped back, and Droid stepped forward, only to do nothing either. 

"Girl, bring the cup here"

Scratching my shoulder, I realised I was yet to share my name. Throwing back the shot, I coughed once before moving towards them.

"I'm Luna, if you wanted to know."

Sitting down the glass where it originally was, I watched as Droids character suddenly sat to pour a drink.

I watched as liquid poured out, but the bottle didn't empty. With shock, I also noticed that it had emptied when I poured my drinks, however.

"When I interact, the environment acts like it's real" I stated, almost to myself.

"What?"

Looking delirious' character in the eye, I elaborated.

"When I interact, shit happens. When I poured a drink, the bottle emptied. When I touched your face, the paint rubbed off. You guys can't do that"

There was a brief second as people stopped to type or think. Which, I wasn't sure.

I wished I could hear what they were saying amongst themselves. I felt like a friend, excluded from a group secret. 

When no reply came, I marched towards Delirious' character and raised my hands to grab his face. Wiping my fingers down each side, I left lines of missing paint, further demonstrating my point. 

Then came a reply.

"I think I just felt that"


	4. Chapter 4

"... What?"

Watching the character in front of me carefully, I held my breath as I waited for the reply. I'm not sure why I was so anxious over a dream, but it felt so real that I couldn't help but forget the circumstances. 

When I got no reply, I snapped.

"Fucking hell! If you're gonna talk, fucking type it and stop leaving me out!" I glared around the room, hoping to catch the cameras of the players. 

After a pregnant silence, someone thankfully replied.

"I said, I think I just felt you touch my face"

Turning back to the face now half free of clown makeup, I blinked a few times. 

"That's impossible" Wildcat stated, marching over to me. His character stopped in front of me, before turning and walking back to where he previously stood. The character did this a few times and I just watched in silence.

"Oh, I get it. This is a prank yeah?" He said, stopping the movement. "Delirious, that is actually so good, fuck man"

From the words, I was sure he was sitting back laughing my this point. I almost felt like I could hear the tone of the words, despite the robotic voice. 

"You even made us close Skype to talk through chat, man I'm proud"

Turning to face Del, I felt annoyed at the un human stillness of the characters. Sure, they shifted a bit, but they didn't fidget, walk around, interact. It didn't feel right.

"This isn't a prank" Delirious said, turning to face the man in the pig mask. Hesitating, I began to walk toward wildcat.

But stopped when he pulled out a knife. 

"I don't know what modifications you did, but the character actually bleeds which is awesome"

Walking toward me, I backed up a few steps, hoping someone would intervene and stop their friend.

To my relief, Arlan, SilentDroidd, did. 

"I felt when she hit my stomach too. I just assumed it was a cramp"

Wildcat stopped, and I put my hand to my racing heart. 

Moo's character ran past him, and stopped in front of me.

"Touch me" I paused, trying to hold it back. I failed.

I burst out laughing, bending over as it faced to silent shaking. The tears built in my squinted eyes as I held my stomach, and I lifted one hand to wipe them.

"Wow Brock"

Came from my watch, causing me to laugh harder. 

I couldn't help but wonder if the others were laughing, "behind their screens". 

Straightening up with a wide grin stretched across my face, I stretched my hand out, and sharply prodded Moo's cheek. 

Glancing around as I waited for the verdict, I watched the rest of the group walk toward me. 

"That doesn't make sense, I definitely felt it" letting out a breath, I reached for the next closest, Wildcat. Hesitantly the character moved close, and I smiled innocently at him.

Then I punched hard at his arm.

"Ow! What the fuck dude?!"

"That's for constantly calling me a hacker! I don't care how much I watch you, this is my life here"

"You didn't have to hit me!"

"So you felt it?" I replied smugly, putting one hand on my hip. Ignoring my question, he posed one of his own.

"If this is somehow real then, how did you get here?"

Biting my lip, I quietly squeezed the rest of the groups arms, just to prove it wasn't a prank.

"How do you get out?"

Dropping back onto the couch, I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my chin on them.

"I don't know. I fell asleep on my couch and woke up in front of the hospital" rubbing my hand up and down one of my legs, I frowned. "You promise this isn't a dream?"

"Promise"

"Swear"

"It's definitely not"

Sighing, I crossed my arms and buried my face, mumbling;

"This is impossible. This can't be real"

I felt the couch sink next to me, and when I looked across, I saw Delirious sitting there, facing me. His character was completely calm and expressionless, but none the less I climbed onto his lap, hugging him tight. I normally wasn't so bold, but I needed the comfort. Snuggling my head under his chin, I closed my eyes.

"What happens when you guys go to bed? What if I can't wake up?"

No one replied, and I just cuddled further into the blue hoody.


	5. Chapter 5

"So, ever wanted to shoot a gun?"

Vanoss' obvious attempt to cheer me up, worked quite well. If I was going to be stuck in this "dream", then I might as well make the most of it.

Sitting up quite fast, I turned to grin at him. 

"Oh my god, there's so much stuff I can try!" Leaping from the couch, I moved to Evan to hug his character tightly. 

It's still weird hugging someone who won't hug back.

None the less, now that I knew they could feel it, it was a useable method to show my gratification. 

Skipping toward the door, I looked back to see everyone following me.

Pausing in hesitation at the door, I bit my lip, before opening it and stepping through.

This time I expected the teleport and was a lot less effected, but I still got a small wave of dizziness as the black faded. 

"I'm sure I'll get used to the teleporting eventually" I mumbled, leaning against a wall for a second as everyone else exited. 

"So, does anyone else know how to actually shoot a gun?"

________

Moo pulled up the car in the airport, not far from the landing strip.

Climbing from the vehicle, I looked around in awe. 

"It's so insane seeing this for real" I mentioned at I walked toward the other car that pulled up. 

"I can only imagine" Vanoss said as he stepped up beside me, looking at the shitty metal box he'd parked in front of us. In other words, my target.

I watched as a handgun materialised in front of Vanoss, then raised my wrist and tapped the watch. As the holographic menu opened in front of me, I flicked my finger across. Sure enough, the equipment menu was also in there, only;

"One problem. I didn't buy any guns."

I dropped my wrist back to my side, and looked at the guys. Wildcat started running towards me, stopping in front of me. Pulling out his handgun, he typed a message.

"Can you take it?"

"Oh, hadn't thought of that!" I said, stepping forward. Effortlessly, I pulled the gun from his hands, which remained in the same position, as if he still had the gun.

As I stepped back, a different gun appeared in his hands to fill the space I'd made.

"Thanks, Tyler" I said, smiling at the sky where I hoped his camera would be. Awkward if it wasn't. 

Positioning the gun how I'd been instructed on the drive here, I tried my best to aim. Shooting, I got the back seat window, where I had aimed. Admittedly though, we were within 15 metres of the car.

The minor recoil wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, though I knew a day of shooting would easily tire my arms out. 

After unloading the clip onto the car, I tried handing the gun back to Wildcat. 

"Uh." Remembering he couldn't raise his hands to take it, I stared awkwardly at his character for a second. "Maybe if I sit it on the ground you can pick it up like normal?" I suggested, stepping back and placing it in front of me. 

Taking a few steps back, I watched in awe at it starter to shine. Wildcat moved forward, and it disappeared from the ground, appearing in his hands. 

All this basic game stuff is so cool to see actually happen.

Smiling widely, I raised my hands.

"Whats next?"

Hearing an explosion, I looked to my left to see Moo, Droid, and Delirious messing around with jets. Or, there was a flaming she'll of a jet that they were now circling. 

Laughing, I turned back to wildcat who now had a shotgun in his hands.

Grabbing it with excitement, I turned to the car and lifted the gun. I was kind of nervous for this one.

Shooting the car door, my arm jerked painfully. Wincing, I shot again. Fun, but that'd probably leave a bruise.

Sitting the gun on the ground, I rubbed the front of my shoulder. Glancing down at my shoulder, I acknowledged that there was a red mark but nothing else.

"Grenade next?"

"Sure" said Evan, who held one out beside me. Grabbing it from his hand, I turned to run away from the car.

Stopping at what I thought would be a safe distance, I smiled at the two guys beside me, before pulling the pin.

Throwing the grenade like I would a ball, I got it in a car window. There was a second of pause, before the grenade exploded, rocking the now flaming car. A second later, another explosion came, this time the car itself.

It sent me stumbling back a little bit with eyes as wide as my smile.

"Can I try RPG?" I said, turning on the two guys with an innocent smile. 

"I don't know..." I could tell Vanoss was frowning as he typed that.

Pouting, I put my hands together and gave a puppy face.

"Pretty please? Worst that'll happen is I graze something by falling over" I said, knowing I was lying. 

"It'd be heavy" Wildcat added in, clearly disapproving of the idea as well.

"Grenade launcher would be lighter right?" I compromised, kneeling down to beg in front of Wildcat, who seemed less against it.

"Get up stupid" he said, as he got out the gun. Grinning madly, I took the weapon from his arms. Not expecting the weight, I slouched down before catching my mistake. Mildly struggling, I lifted the gun up and aimed it into the distance.

Clicking the button, I jolted back and fell on my back, hitting my head.

Sitting back up, I ignored the dizziness and likely concussion, to see the explosion. If I could purr, I probably would because of how happy I was at the moment.

Leaving the gun on the ground, I pushed myself to my feet, placing my palm against the sore part of my scalp.

The other three guys came running over, they were probably bored with what they'd been doing.

Looking back, I noticed Delirious coming straight toward me. Giving a little wave, I turned back to Evan and Tyler in front of me.

"Guys! What the hell!"

Frowning, I turned back to Moo who was close behind Del's character.

"Her heads bleeding!"

Looking from Delirious, to the hand I had used to rub my head, I frowned. There, on my fingertips, was a crimson substance. Blood.

Glancing down at the ground is landed on, I spotted a small bloody rock. 

Looking back up, Delirious' hockey mask was now right in front of me. I was sure it'd be frowning under the mask if it had his expressions. 

Shrugging a small bit, I raised my hand to brush at the area, wincing as I made sure there were no rocks. It felt fine.

"Can someone double check its clean for me? It's probably just a small cut." Trying to make a joke, I added "Probably have a concussion though, don't know how that'll go down, considering you're not meant to sleep, and I'm currently asleep." I chuckled a little at the end.

No one laughed, so I just looked down and wiped my hands on my pants. Forgot they couldn't laugh, awkward.

"It's clean, doesn't look too bad. You should be more careful" came from Delirious, and I smiled.

"No big deal then," I smiled, doing a comically over the top shrug, "now who's the best at flying the jets?"


	6. Chapter 6

My heart was in my throat as the private jet lifted from the runway, my face glued to the window as my blue eyes watched the world shrink below me. Grinning like a madman, I looked across to SilentDroidd, sitting on the chair across from me, drinking champagne. 

Grabbing my own flute of the bubbly liquid, I sipped at it as I eyed the city below. Night was beginning to fall so the lights shimmered on the cityscape, sunset lighting making the buildings glow a beautiful purple.  

I brushed stray hair back behind my ear as I softly smiled, taking another sip of my drink. 

Looking across to the ocean, I watched as the waves reflected the vivid colours cast across the sky, feeling completely in awe, yet relaxed.

Despite the unrealistic situation, despite this being my second time flying, despite the fact that a pig was piloting the aircraft, with an owl co-pilot. 

Turning my eyes to the inside of the plane, I looked across at Moo and Delirious, on the seats opposite. I couldn't help but wonder what was going through their mind.

They wouldn't be admiring the scenery like I was, they'd seen the visuals of the game through a screen many times. And there wasn't much for them to do inside the jet.

It must be super late there right? Will they have to sleep soon?

Frowning, I turned back to the window.

"You shouldn't frown, you look much nicer smiling"

Giggling at the abrupt break of silence, I turned to Droid with a small smile, blushing lightly. 

"Thanks" the smile slowly started to fall as I thought through what to say next. "I was just wondering what happens when you guys sleep is all. It must be super late right?"

Sucking in a breath through my teeth, I finished off my champagne, toying with the glass to distract myself.

"We can do like a rotation right? One person stays on while others sleep and edit?"

Pursing my lips, I nodded slightly in reply, not looking up to him. 

"Yeah, we can try to work out how to get you out of here, there's bound to be a way" Moo added reassuringly. 

"I just, I don't want to mess with your schedules at all. I know you guys are super busy with YouTube" I said, making it obvious I was a fan, if it hadn't been already. Although, I still viewed them all as totally normal people. "I must have already ruined this gaming session right?" I suddenly remembered they were probably recording.

"Wait, do you come up in the recording?" Delirious quickly threw in, apparently only just remembering they were recording too.

Looking across, I shrugged. "Go check your footage?"

"I will. I think I'll crash too, I'm dead tired. Will message you guys on what's up" he said, character standing and moving toward the door.

"IM OFF TO BE AWESOME" he yelled, making me chuckle at the fact that the robotic voice had actually shouted it.

He flung himself from the door, and when it closed behind him, I moved across to where he had been sitting and looked out the window.

There were a few seconds where he was directly beneath the jet and I couldn't see him, but then as he got lower, he was again in sight. Laughing at the crazy man, I watched as he disappeared from the sky.

"H2O delirious has left the game" buzzed on my watch, making me glance down. 

Prepared to wait in another silence for Delirious' feedback, I got comfortable in my new seat. 

"So, you haven't given us your name"

Shocked at the fact they were willing to have a conversation with the strange girl that had apparently appeared in their game, my eyes widened a little at Moo.

"Uh, I'm Luna. I thought I'd mentioned" I bit my lip, shrugging a little"

"I like your name"

Smiling, I thanked Brock. 

"So, where are you from?" He asked, clearly curious about me.

"Ah, I'm actually in Virginia, aha. But I'm from Australia"

"Oh cool! Delirious lives there. When did you move?" I nodded along, already knowing Delirious had lived here at some point. I didn't know he currently did till now though.

"Ah, I moved across when I was 19, I grew up in Australia"

"Oh, so you haven't been here long?" I hadn't mentioned my age, but I'm sure I looked fairly young.

"Yeah kinda, 5 years is a decent amount of time."

"Wait, you're 24?" Came from droid, who was clearly interested in the conversation too. Nodding at him, I replied.

"Is it not believable?" I said, smooshing my cheeks together into a silly face.

"You look younger is all" he said, and I accepted it as a compliment. It had annoyed me when I was a teenager, but now I hoped it stuck with me as I got older.

"I just got the message. Delirious says 'files corrupt', and that when he wakes up he's going to try to edit a heap, so he'll take shift tomorrow night if you haven't worked out how to get out of the game by then" Vanoss interrupted, relaying the information. Guilt swelled in my chest at the thought of ruining a full gaming session. 

"I'm so sorry. I hope it's just bad luck he lost his video." Quickly realising the way it sounded, I rushed to correct my wording "not that I want him to have bad luck! Just that I don't want you to all have lost your footage because of me" I felt flustered, cutting off my rambling and putting my face in my hands. 

"It's ok, we getcha" Vanoss said, comforting me. "I'm more worried about you being stuck in a game. I have other footage I'm currently editing" breathing out a breath of relief, I started rubbing at my head.

"I am tired though, we need to sort out what we're gonna do. We need sleep"

Petting my hair back down flat from where I'd probably messed it up, I glanced toward the cockpit.

"What about another friend? Just explain the situation? Or, make up a lie?"

"I'll make a group conversation, don't know if anyone will believe us."

Shrugging, I snuggled down into the seat.

"Hopefully they'll be curious enough to help out"


	7. Chapter 7

'Terroriser has joined the game'

Vanoss had mentioned that a few people would probably be asleep or busy, but he didn't doubt that they'd want to see what was up later on.

Moo and Vanoss had left to go to bed, but the rest were still with you.

Apparently, Vanoss had been hosting the game, but when he left it hadn't affected anything. Maybe I took over host? Is that possible? 

At that, I mentally rolled my eyes at myself. I don't think possible and impossible applies here any more.

We were currently sitting out front of a food shop, with me eating. This is stupid, I still need to eat and everything. 

Oh no. 

Does this mean I'm still gonna need the toilet? I really don't want to pee in their game. What if it's like when you pee in a dream and pee in real life?

I don't want that. 

A car pulled up beside me, distracting me from my thoughts. 

Climbing from the car, one gaming terroriser. 

"Hi, Brian. I hope you don't mind that you have to type instead of using Skype..." I chuckled at the rhyme, smiling at the character frozen in front of me.

"That's so cool! How is that real?" He said, moving his character towards me.

"Good question. Wish I knew so I could get out of here" I shrugged, standing up. Waving to the sky, a little above and diagonal of his characters head, I added. "I'm Luna, by the way. It's nice to kinda meet you" then stepped forward, and shook the mans hand.

"I just felt that" 

Laughing, I stepped back.

"Weird, right?!" Wildcat's character ran to my side, I toyed with my fingers as I waited, cracking the joints.

"That's impossible" Brian said, clearly in disbelief. I didn't blame him.

As I opened my mouth to reply, another buzzing came from my wrist.

'MiniLadd has joined the game'

Lifting my arm to show the others, despite the fact that it would have showed on screen, I frowned.

"Isn't it like early as fuck where he is? I don't know any timezones" I trailed off, dropping my arm.

"What's that?" My question was ignored, but it didn't bother me. Looking down to my arm, I shrugged.

"It's a fashion statement"

There was a moment of silence, and I smiled to myself.

"It's a watch thing I had when I woke up. It's got the menu and everything. I'm using it to hear what you type, too"

I feel like if I could see him, he'd be nodding.

"That's kinda coo-" the end of the word was masked by a loud crunching sound beside us.

Looking across, I noted that the car Terroriser had arrived in, now had a large dent in the rear end, with another car reversing from it.

Laughing loudly, I watched as Mini drive up the sidewalk, and parked directly beside us.

"Mini! What the fuck!" Must have been Brian's car then, not a random one he stole. Oh well.

Turning to the suited man climbing from the car, I smiled.

"Hey, I'm Luna" I said.

Typing in chat, droid said a farewell, and also updated Mini on what was going on.

"Gotta go now guys, best of luck luna. Craig, if you want to talk, type it. Bya"

"Bye Arlan!" I shouted, smiling at his pink shirted character.

'SilentDroidd has left the game'

Looking back to Mini, I awkwardly rubbed my chin.

"So, uh, hi. How're you?"

There were a few beats of silence, before his reply came through.

"Is this a prank? Vanoss isn't even here but I connected to his game. Is that you Evan?"

Glancing over to Wildcat, I frowned. Cmon, help me out here man.

"No prank dude, honest. Don't know what the fuck is up" he said, thankfully coming to my aid. 

"As if, you can't just teleport into games"

Rubbing my arm awkwardly, I stepped back to lean on Brian's shoulder. 

"Hey, no offence, but please don't. It's really disconcerting" he said, and I sidestepped away from him, putting my hands in my pockets instead.

"Sorry..." I trailed, feeling out of place and dumb.

"It's all good"

"What's disconcerting?" Asked Craig, clearly having no clue what we were talking about. 

Biting my lip, I ignored him for a second, turning instead to Tyler.

"Do you need to go to sleep? You're good to go, you know."

"I'm good to stay for a while" he replied, and I smiled.

"Ok cool" 

Turning back to MiniLadd, I walked towards him. 

"Cool if I touch you?" I asked first, not wanting to weird him out too much. It hadn't bothered me so much with everyone else, but he clearly didn't believe it in the slightest.

"What"

"Can I touch your character?" I asked again, trying not to snicker at the inappropriate interpretation of the sentence.

"Ok?"

Reaching my hands out, I grabbed his shoulders, and squeezed. 

"Um"

Waiting, I looked across at the other two. But there was no other message that came through.

"Mini?" Asked Wildcat, checking if he was still there. But from the lack of reply, it didn't seem like he was.

"Craig" I poked his cheek. "You there?"

Fearing he might freak out or disconnect, I turned to walk away. I didn't want him punching me like Delirious had.

"I actually felt that. This is some supernatural shit" he finally said, as I stopped next to Wildcat. 

Blowing out a deep breath, I nodded.

"It's certainly not normal"


	8. Chapter 8

Whooping loudly, I stood up through the sky roof of the car, and squinted against the wind.

I cringed every time there was a near miss with cars around us, but Wildcat drove pretty well. Night had settled now and the city lights illuminated the streets around us.

Looking back at the two cars tailing us, I immaturely poked my tongue out. They probably couldn't see it, but the simple amusement of doing it was satisfaction enough.

Turning my sights to the sky, I watched as the clouds drifted past the bright white moon, an ironic opposite to the world below. They were so slow and peaceful, while we swerved at high speeds through the streets, causing a burning rubber smell that made me scrunch up my nose. 

Laughing loudly, I sunk back into my seat in the back of the car, stretching my arms out in front of me. I was feeling a little tired, but I didn't want to sleep.

"Wildcat, do you have a house or something?"

Knowing he couldn't type and drive at the same time, I laid down on the leather seat, and got comfortable.

From here I could only see the sides of the buildings, but the glass windows reflected the colours of the streets below, making the view almost mesmerising. 

I know we should be trying to get me out, but when would I normally get the chance to do all this stuff?

Noticing we'd taken a turn into a more housed area, I smiled, closing my eyes briefly. 

The car came to a stop and Tyler climbed from his seat, so I took that as my cue to sit up. The house we were in front of was nothing special, but still much nicer than my apartment in real life. 

Stepping out of the vehicle, I stretched by back, hearing multiple cracks come from the joints. 

Walking toward the front door, I opened it up, walking inside. I didn't know you could buy houses like this on this game, if I'm honest. 

"The other two are losing the cops, we'll go to my house in a second"

Frowning, I turned around, noticing he wasn't behind me.

"Where'd you go?" He called, probably feeling as confused as I did. 

"I'm in here!" I called back, walking towards the kitchen. I had judged too early. The outside was nothing special, but the inside was really modern and clean. Shouldn't have expected any less.

Footsteps behind me caused me to turn, and I watched as Wildcat ran in through the door.

"How'd you get in here?" 

Frowning, I sat at a kitchen stool, and rested my head on the countertop.

"I opened the door. Thought it was your place so let myself in"

Hearing another car pull up outside, I lifted my head to glance briefly towards the door, before placing it back down.

"That's so cool. Can you just interact with everything?"

Shrugging as best I could in my position, I listened to two pairs of footsteps enter.

"Hey guys, welcome to the house I accidentally broke into" I mumbled, face still pressed to the cold marble. 

"Try opening some cupboards" Tyler persisted, and with a groan, I stood again to my feet. I had to admit, I was curious myself as to what my limits were. 

Walking around the island, I grabbed the handle, and gentle pulled. With almost no effort, the cupboard swing open in front of me. Turning with my eyebrows raised, I shut it again behind me. It was empty anyway.

"That's so cool" came from Mini, who was clearly starting to be convinced of the reality of the situation. 

"Turn the tv on!" Wildcat said next, walking toward the lounge room. 

Following behind him, I looked around, not seeing a remote. Moving towards the tv, I leant down and pressed the power button. The screen was black for a second, until it lit up with grey static. 

Thankfully, the volume was down low, or I'd probably have jumped out of my skin. 

Pouting, I pressed the button to turn it back off.

"I don't really like tv anyway" I mumbled, walking toward the bedroom. Dropping myself on the large bed, I let out a loud sigh. The three guys had obviously followed me, as they now all stood in the door, characters creepily staring into space.

That'd never not weird me out.

"Could I sleep? Is that ok?" I asked, feeling guilty for being boring. Craig and Brian had willingly joined to stay with me, and all I wanted to do now was sleep. 

"I should sleep too." Said Wildcat.

"I definitely need sleep, It's been like 4 hours!" He added, probably having checked the time. The other guys left at around sunset. It was now about midnight.

"Goodnight Tyler"

"Have a good sleep man" 

Waving at his character, I grinned, watching his disappear into air.

'I Am Wildcat has left the game'

Looking now to the two guys left near the door, I scratched my forehead. 

"Can I sleep? I know you guys came in to keep me company... It's totally cool if you head out" I asked, giving my best puppy dog face.

"That's fine by me" And "Of course" Came through at almost the same time, and relief flooded my veins.

"Maybe sleeping in the game is what you need to wake up in real life" Brian said, as I crawled toward the pillows.

Dropping down, I closed my tired eyes and yawned. 

"Hopefully"


	9. Chapter 9

Smiling lightly, I closed my eyes tightly against the sunshine coming through the window. 

That was a freaking cool dream, I thought, cuddling against the pillow. 

But... I fell asleep on my couch. 

Frowning, I curled up smaller. It wasn't just an average dream. I'm still here, in the GTA V universe.

Opening my eyes confirmed my suspicions as I looked around the room bathed in the warm glow of the sun.

At least I feel refreshed. 

Sitting up, I rolled off the bed, and moved toward the kitchen. Rubbing my eyes, I pulled open the fridge, only to frown. No food.

"Ah shit. What am I supposed to do now? The guys could be anywhere, if any are still here" I wondered out load, looking around. Before I grinned deviously.

Skipping out the door, I clicked it shut behind me, then turned mischievously to the car still parked near the house.

I didn't have my license, and I'd only driven once in a manual. But, noes the best time to learn right? 

"Right" I confirmed out loud, walking to the vehicle. 

Opening the door, I laughed upon seeing the keys in the ignition.

"Oh my gosh" I snorted "That's how they steal cars so easily. They're not even hot wiring"

Still laughing, I turned the key and started the car, noting that it was thankfully an automatic. Leaving the parked spot, I started driving slowly down the street, still not wanting to crash and hurt myself. 

Or hit anyone. 

Sure, they wouldn't actually be hurt, but it was just unsettling seeing people be injured and killed when it all looked real. 

I giggled as I picked up pace, driving at normal speeds. This was so cool. Such a simple thing, but I had to admit it was a thrill.

Manoeuvring my way through the streets, I tried to remember the way to the food place from yesterday.

When I finally came to a stop, I left the car in the middle of the road, and climbed out. As I reached the sidewalk, I heard a honk behind me and a loud crunch. Looking back, I watched a car swerve away, the man in the front seat cursing.

"Thanks asshole!" I called out, sticking my finger up at the car as it drove away.

Turning back to the convenience store, I remembered I didn't have any money. If I stole it, would I get notoriety? Shrugging, I stepped inside, enjoying the air cooler that filled the store with a comfortable chill. 

Walking toward the back shelves of the shop, I looked across to see the store clerk not paying attention.

Grabbing a box of easy mac n cheese, I stuffed it up my shirt. But the best hider, considering it was a tight singlet shirt, but it'd have to do.

The mix between excitement and nervousness caused me to giggle, as I walked towards some cereals. I grabbed two boxes of a fruit muesli, and frowned. No way could I hide these. 

Shrugging, I slipped the pasta out from my shirt and held them all in my hands. 

Wait... Could I?

My eyes lit up as I lifted my watch. Bringing up the phone, I smiled when I saw the mugger. 

Tapping on his name, it popped up with the options- MiniLadd and Daithi De Nogla.

Sending him after Mini, I sat in the floor and waited, laughing to myself at the thought of Mini's face when the random mugger came after him. 

Brian must have left at some point, not that I expected them to stay. I must have slept for like a good 8 hours. It's weird that the game time was moving at the same pace as the real world, that normally didn't happen. Or, maybe I was being sped up, and it just seemed like normal to me? Too confusing for me.

Standing up, I continued to fill my arms with food that'd help keep me alive for however long I was here.

Walking towards the counter with full arms, I started stacking it all up. As I was placing the final items, I felt my watch buzz.

As soon as it did, a golden ring appeared around me, and the cashier started scanning. 

He must have been successful, I'm glad he wasn't killed.

Laughing quietly, I grabbed my bags, wondering how I was meant to pay. But, as soon as I lifted them up, my watch buzzed again, and the cashier looked away.

Oh, ok. Cool. 

Walking out to my car, I put the bags on the passenger seat, and smiled at the cars driving around me. Starting the vehicle, I joined the traffic. 

Almost back to my house, I turned a corner, only to slam on the brakes. The car swerved a little and a loud thud echoed through the vehicle.

Tears sprung to my eyes and my stomach leapt. My heart pounded so loudly I was surprised Mini couldn't hear it, who was running towards the car.

Scrambling from my seat, I rushed to the front of the car, where Daithi was laying.

Kneeling by his side, I put my fingers to his pulse without thinking. I was surprised though, when I felt one under my fingertips. 

Daithi was alive. 

Was he ok though? Normally being hit by a car wouldn't affect them, but if I could touch them and they felt it, what was to say they wouldn't feel me hitting them with a car? 

"Calm down Luna"

Tears were now freely streaming down my face as I looked up to Mini, who stood beside me. 

"Calm down? I just hit him with a car! He hasn't gotten up yet, don't you think that's odd?" I ranted, freaked out by the whole situation. "I could feel his pulse, he's alive" I added, staring at the funny looking person on the ground. 

"You could feel it?" 

Nodding, I bit my lip. What do we do?!

"Call him." I demanded, looking up to the suited man. "Make sure he's ok. He hasn't even typed yet"

"Ok" he said. Waiting a few seconds, I sat on my haunches, raising my hand to wipe some tears.

"He didn't answer"


	10. Chapter 10

Standing, I started pacing beside the body on the ground. Spinning on my heel, I reached up to let out my hair, running my fingers through the brown strands.

Stopping beside him, I continued to play with a small ringlet.

"Daithi? Can you still here me? One letter"

Holding my breath as I waited for a reply, I tugged a little on my hair in frustration. 

"Mini, call aga-"

"K"

Spinning to look at his character, I watched it stand from the ground as if nothing had happened. But it didn't move at all.

"Are you ok dude?" Asked Mini, as I breathed out in relief. He was still there.

"I feel like I've been hit by a car"

Feeling super guilty, I chuckled a small bit as tears trickled from my eyes. Stepping forward, I wrapped the character in a gentle hug.

"I'm so so sorry, I didn't mean to hit you"

"I walked in front of the car, it's fine" he said, easing a small bit of my anguish. "Normally it doesn't matter" he added, and I couldn't help my small giggle. 

Resting my forehead on the mans chest, I focussed on trying to stop my tears.

"Did you get hurt or?" Mini asked, and I quietly listened in.

"Nothing, not even a graze, just hurt. Took my breath" he said, and I felt reassurance that he was ok. I guess it's only the sensations that pass through. 

"We'll have to be more careful around her, she's deadly"

Knowing Mini was trying to lighten the mood, I straightened and poked my tongue out at him as I stepped away from Daithi.

"Shut up" I said with a small laugh, placing my hands to my surely red and splotchy cheeks.

"You should head out and rest or something David" Mini said, clearly worried for his friend too.

"No, it's ok, I'm fine. It's going away" he said. While I didn't approve of him still playing, there was no way I was going to try telling him what to do. He wouldn't listen anyway. 

Deciding to change the topic, I started walking to the house.

"Someone want to drive the car up then? I got some food to put in the cupboards. It was that house right?" I said, walking towards the house. I heard a car start behind me, and footsteps.

Suddenly, Daithi was running past me.

"Oi, wait up!" I said, racing him to the front door.

Pushing my feet as fast as I could, I stayed almost in line with his character as we neared the entry. Slapping my palm on the wood just before he reached it, I threw my arms up in the air.

"Yes! Winner winner chicken dinner! Take that!" I said, laughing loudly. The stress was finally wearing away. Mini had pulled up in front of the house before we reached the door, and was now running in circles around the front yard.

Opening the door so they could enter if they wanted, I went to grab the bags of food. 

"How did you pay for those anyway?" Mini asked, as I was putting them away. Snorting at the question, I smiled innocently, turning to face him.

"Uh, I don't know what you're talking about. I had that money the whole time" I said, purposely not making full sense.

"What?" Asked Daithi, running in from the back yard, where a pool rested in the ground. 

Shrugging, I turned back to the fridge, placing my bottle of iced tea in there. Good thing the store actually had food and drinks. 

"The mugger stole it fair and square, ok? It's mine now" I said, turning back to them with a smirk, placing my arms crossed across my chest. 

A robotically laughing filled the air, sounding a little unnerving.

"Hahahahahahahaha Craig she was the one who sent him" 

Laughing a bit myself, I brushed off the odd noise. It was too bad I couldn't hear them properly, or see their reactions. 

"You little shit!" He said, moving toward me. Turning, I sprinted toward the door Daithi had came through, and out onto the grass. Glancing behind me, I saw Craig in hot pursuit. 

Smiling, I ran around the side and placed my hands on the corner of the fence, where it met the gate. Lifting myself, I slung a leg over, and dropped to the other side.

I was glad for the small gap between us, because I knew he'd climb it a lot faster than I could.

And I was right, as I ran out into the street, he was close behind me. 

Panting, I looked around. He won't get tired so I can't outrun him. But I can hide.

Moving toward a car parked on the street further up, I ducked on the side of it. 

"Luna, I saw you hide." 

I cursed my stupidity, I'd forgotten about the third person view. 

Peaking over the window, I watched as he ran toward the back of the car. Sneaking toward the front, I looped around the vehicle, waiting for him to stop on the side I was just at. 

"Where'd you go?" Laughing, I stood back up to run back to the house. 

I just made it to the lawn when a body crashed into my back, sending me sprawling. I rolled onto my side, watching the character stumble and stand. 

Laughing, I sat and brushed off my hands. The grass stains on my knees didn't bother me, because these pants are old. Plus, I doubt they'd go from in game to outside. 

"Ok you got me, my bad. I'm sorry for mugging you"


	11. Chapter 11

Mini had left a little while after our chase, and Daithi and I had merely sat around talking. He didn't feel like playing too much and instead decided to question me a heap. The questions had moved from serious ones about me as a person, to more funny and childish ones, as he ran out of the others.

Every now and then, I asked some back, but being a fan, I already knew most. So normally it was just me replying with 'yours?' On some things I didn't know.

He was a funny guy, and it made me really happy to know he was the same as he was on screen. He was genuine.

"Drown in vodka or drown blood?"

Cringing, I thought it through. Vodka would sting a lot, both your throat and eyes. Blood wouldn't nearly as much. Although it's gross as heck.

"Who's blood? And am I submerged?"

I had a habit of overthinking these sorts of things. It'd be easy to say alcohol and joke about being drunk, but I need the facts.

"Hm, random animal bloods. And yes to submerged"

Nodding, I decided my answer. As I went to say, another message came through.

"Alarms going off, I've gotta head out. Del said he'd join in 5-10 minutes"

Daithi had an alarm set for 3pm so he had time to edit his video for tomorrow, and had messaged Delirious to join for the night. 

He said he would but that he would probably be a little after 3, which was fine with me. 

"Righteo, it's been fun talking man" I said, smiling to his character. Expecting him to disappear, I was shocked when another question came through. 

"Do you have Twitter?"

Grinning, I nodded. Telling him my Twitter, I wondered if he was going to follow me, or if he was checking I was who I said. 

After that, the character vanished.

'Daithi De Nogla has left the game'

I stood to get food as I waited for H2O Delirious, the crazy masked man. 

Leaning against the sink as I ate, I started thinking. It must be boring for the guys to basically watch over me, they couldn't do missions or heists, blow things up and run from the cops, or any of the normal stuff.

Too often they died, and no one really wanted me to die, just in case I didn't respawn. And, from the way I'm still acting totally human, I don't think I will. 

Ignoring the buzz of my watch, I continued the food I was snacking on, eyebrows furrowed. 

How am I meant to get out of here? What are we meant to do? I couldn't stay in here, couldn't live in here. This wasn't my life. No one was real here. Even the characters, that's all they were. Vessels of make believe for gamers in the real world.

"Are you ok?"

Leaping into the air, I inhaled a bit of food, and started coughing. My eyes watered and my throat burned as I leaned over, hands on my knees. 

I finally stopped, standing up as I focussed on breathing properly. It was a little raspy still, but I was able to inhale now. 

"Sorry"

Smiling a pained smile at Delirious, I held out a thumb.

"All good" I said, trying to clear my throat. 

I turned my thumb into a point at him instead. 

"I know you laughed you bitch" I said with a rough laugh.

"Swear I didn't" he said, and I felt that he'd raise his palms in innocence if he could. 

"Why don't I believe you?" I teased, patting his shoulder as I moved past him.

"So what are we gonna do?" I pondered, making my way to the front door.

Pausing in the entry, he walked past me to outside. 

"Ever wanted to parachute?" 

My smile spread insanely wide as I shut the door behind me, basically running to the car he'd driven here. It was a lot nicer than the one I'd been using, and didn't have a smashed in tail end.

"Fuck yes! Oh my gosh, that's a great idea!" I almost squealed, sliding into the passenger seat as he got into the drivers side.

Turning the vehicle, he started driving down the road, and I let my eyes watch the scenery as it sped past. The speeds would never not cause me excitement. 

We started passing through a more industrial area, with warehouses on the ocean side. Putting the window down, I sighed as the smell of sea salt wafted through air. I could hear waves in the distance, and a few birds in the air. It was quite relaxing. 

Slowly, the car came to a stop.

"Might want to put the window up, and get down low"

Del said, and I raised an eyebrow at him. Doing what I was told, I slid down onto the ground and watched as a machine gun materialised in his hand. 

I could take a guess at what we were doing. 

The car took off again, the gun poking out a partially would down window. I watched through his side as we passed through some gates, before entering a large shed type building. 

When the shooting started, I couldn't help but flinch. A few shots pinged against the car, hitting Delirious's side. He started firing back, likely having much better aim than they did. 

I only noticed the car had stopped moving, when it started again. 

There were two rough bumps that caused me to hit my head, then the vehicle stopped. 

"Climb into the helicopter, fast!"

Scrambling from the car, I dashed for the chopper. Watching his character climb in, I copied him to open the door. The other guys would probably never let me do this sort of dangerous stuff. While it probably wasn't smart or mature of either of us, I couldn't care.

As we lifted into the air, I leaned close to the side of the cockpit window. Was it still called a cockpit in choppers? I didn't know. All I knew, was that I was loving every second of this.

Adrenaline was pumping through my veins as the water moved below us. Looking around, I spotted ear muffs, and quickly pulled them over my ears. The noise was incredibly loud, but it was worth it.

Moving fast across the buildings, I smiled down at the people that looked like ants. The jets were cool, but this was the best experience of my life. 

The helicopter started dropping for a brief second, and I looked across to the man with the blue hoody beside me.

"Just gotta lose the stars"

Nodding, I put thumbs up instead of talking. 

It was a bit sucky that they couldn't really talk while driving or piloting. That explained the drop.

The speed that buildings passed below us was insane. We were now high enough up that we easily passed above the skyscrapers of the city centre, and I looked down at the streets in between the towers.

We slowly started heading down to a small secluded beach on the side of a hill, and when we landed I smiled.

"Lost them" he said, and I smiled, just taking in the situation. Watching the ocean, I noticed the sun was setting directly over the ocean. It still had about 2 or 3 hours, but the direction was behind the waves. 

Taking off my shoes, I started rolling up my pants. 

"Might as well enjoy the beach and wait for the sun to set. You can go blow shit up if you'd like?" I added, aware that it might be boring for him to wait around for so long. 

"I'm cool with sticking around"


	12. Chapter 12

A while had passed, in which I spent playing in the sand, laughing at delirious, who was currently a speck on the horizon.

He'd wanted to see how far he could swim out, after getting a little bored of running around on the beach. Understandable, it's not like he could enjoy it really.

"Immmm drrroooowwnnniinnggg" 

Chuckling at the update to his live commentary, I squinted against the setting sun. 

I was perfecting the last parts of my sandcastle at this point, feeling quite proud of my creation, especially because I hadn't had any tools to help. 

By this point, my rolled up pants were absolutely covered in sand, and my wavy brown hair curled around my shoulders, caressing my cheeks when I leaned forward.

It started bugging me a while back, but with my hands covered in the little grains, I didn't want to touch it to tie it back. 

"Destruction!" Was echoed, and I looked up in confusion, only to see Delirious running from the water, droplets running down his otherwise dry hoody. Cool.

Distracted by the strange dryness of the character, I noticed too late that he was running directly toward me. More importantly, my castle.

Springing up to push him away, I held out my arms.

"No don't!" 

But I was too late, and as his character effortlessly ran through the sand, bringing it down to a mound at my feet.

"Fatality!" 

Trying my best to hold back a laugh, I hit his chest. 

"You little shit, that was so not cool" I grumbled, crossing my arms and turning my sight to the sky behind him.

"Aw, I'm forgive me" he said, stepping his character closer.

A step forward and he would bump into me.

"You destroyed my castle" I pouted, pushing out a lip and closing my eyes as I turned my head away, letting the sun glow across my face. 

"I'll give the pretty princess a better castle" he said, and I couldn't decide whether I should laugh or blush. He'd actually written that in, wow. Smooth. 

My face felt hot and I couldn't tell if it was a blush or from the sun. I hope I don't sunburn. 

"Take her home to my castle" he said, keeping up the act. Maybe I had blushed, because my cheeks suddenly felt warmer again. That'll probably encourage the teasing. 

Peaking one eye open, I turned my head slightly back toward him, just to poke my tongue out. 

"Careful, cat might catch your tongue" he said, then seconds later added, "or I will" 

By this point I was definitely flustered, his flirting was funny and cute, but I knew I had to focus on the fact that it was a joke.

His character took another step forward, bumping against me. 

Then, it shoved me.

Falling onto my butt in the sand, I finally broke out laughing, throwing my head back.

"Fuck, sorry. Forgot they did that" he said, but I doubt he felt too bad, if I were him I'd be laughing like I was. 

Standing back up, I walked toward the water. Might as well swim, my clothes are already ruined for the night by being coated in sand. 

Walking slowly into the water, I enjoyed the cool waves lapping at my legs. 

"It's all good" I finally replied to Delirious, smiling quickly over my shoulder to him, only to notice he was steps behind me.

"First person is weird to use this often" he said randomly, making me laugh as I sank down I to the water.

Dipping my head under, I pushed my hair back behind my ears, before surfacing again. 

The sun had finally started to set by this point , and gorgeous hues of orange and pink were thrown against the sparse clouds dotting the horizon.

The colours reflected onto the waves, making the water vibrant and magical. I'd never seen a sunset over the ocean before, but it was on my bucket list.

Silently, I enjoyed the gorgeous view, inhaling the smell of salt around me, the same thing on my lips. The soothing sound of the water as it rushed up the beach, only to run back off seconds later just made the scene all the more dream like.

Ha, that's an ironic definition.

As it sunk lower on the horizon, the colours became bolder, and I wished I had my camera with me to capture the picturesque view.

"Hey, I'm sorry for being so boring, by the way" I whispered, not willing to totally ruin the silence.

My watch didn't have the same volume control, apparently.

"It's ok, I've never really enjoyed the visuals before" it spoke, causing me to flinch a little.

Nodding to reply, I watched as the sun slowly sank down below the waves. 

By the time the sky was deep blue, and sprinkled with the twinkle of the stars, wind wind had picked up and created a chill to the air.

Wordlessly, I stood from the waves and walked to shore, shivering as a gust of wind cooled my water soaked clothing.

As Delirious and I reached shore, I turned to him with a blue lipped smile. 

"Do you mind if we head to home so I can change, before we head up?" I asked, tilting my head.

"No worries, hop in" he said, walking toward the helicopter.  

When we climbed in, I slipped on the earmuffs and turned my eyes to the sky. 

The stars faded behind the light pollution as we neared population, but the twinkle in my eyes remained.


	13. Chapter 13

The helicopter came to a landing on the roof of the house. I was terrified the building would cave under the weight or that Delirious would crash, but to my relief we landed safely in the shelter of the dark. Climbing from the chopper, I moved to the side of the house so I could use the side gate to climb down. 

Evidentially, Delirious had no such concerns. 

As I dropped onto the ground, I watched him walk straight off the roof, without a care in the world. His face came into hard contact with the ground and my hand shot up to my mouth as I gasped. 

I watched the dark outline stand up as if nothing had happened, and I couldn't help but giggle as I moved towards him.

Opening the back door, I walked toward the bedroom, with the clown at my heels.

"How did you get in here?" He asked, clearly only just know realising it was strange that is directed him to 'my place' inside the game world. 

"I opened the door, it wasn't locked" I said, entering the room and switching on the light before heading to the cupboard.

"I've worked out that I can practically interact with everything as if it were real" I added, pulling open the cupboard. Only to freeze, my eyebrows pulling inward.

"Uh, shit"

"What is it?" Del asked, moving to stand directly behind me, so that he could see what I saw. An empty cupboard. "Oh"

"I haven't bought any clothes" I said, trying to think of a solution.

Closing the cupboard, I turned and started pacing the empty space of room at the root of the bed. I ignored the sound of the cupboard swinging open again, until I saw the familiar glow in the corner of my eye.

Pausing, I looked over. And surely enough, around Delirious' feet was a golden ring. More importantly though, a full cupboard.

Quickly moving over to him, I noticed that all the clothing was blue hoodies, grey shirts, and dark pants. In other words, his characters clothing. 

"Delirious, that's perfect! I can see it all! Your clothes, I can just use some of yours!" I said, a large smile lighting up my face.

"We can be matchy!" He said, stepping away from the cupboard. But to my concern, as he stepped away, the clothes evaporated as the door swung shut.

"Uh" 

Stepping toward the cupboard, I opened it, only to see it empty again. 

"Maybe I have to stay there" delirious said, and I moved out of the way for him.

The golden glow appeared again and he opened to a full space, clothes hung and stacked neatly.

"Go for it" he said, and I stepped in front of him. I grabbed a pair of the tracksuits, and a the loose grey shirt. 

As I walk walking out of his way, I noticed how huge the shoes were, and I laughed. Lucky I'd kept mine clean.

"Ok, thank y-" I was cut off by my watch.

"Grab a jacket too, wind might hurt skydiving"

Biting my lip, I nodded, quickly grabbing one, before ushering him from the room. 

As he stepped out, I closed the door, and stripped from my clothes. 

Slipping the trackies were super loose, and I was grateful for the strings allowing me to pull them tighter. I made sure to knot it securely, didn't want my pants falling when I no longer had underwear. They were only a little too long, but not to the point of affecting my walking or running. I pulled on my red converse and socks after brushing off the sand covering my feet, doing almost the same with my bra. The sand removal, that is.

How did so much sand even get caught in there?

Pulling in the shirt, I laughed loudly at how loose it was. Taking one of my two hair bands on my wrist, I tied a knot at the side to make it less likely to get in the road.

Slipping on the jacket, I half zipped it up, pushing up the sleeves and putting up the hood. 

I left the room, and when I didn't see Delirious, headed for the loungeroom.

He was seated on the couch in front of the tv, playing a game. I scowled, because I hadn't been able to make it work.

"You look good in my clothes" he said, standing from the couch and sauntering toward me. My cheeks immediately heated and I shoved his shoulder playfully.

"Ah, cut it out would you?" 

"Just being honest" he said, casually walking toward the back door. 

My mouth dropped open as I looked down at myself. Nothing special, just the same casual wear that he himself had on.

Giving myself a second to calm down, I braided my hair down the back. Part way through, Delirious walked back inside, moving toward me. 

There was a brief flash, as if someone had taken a photo, and I blinked. 

"What was that?" I asked with a frown.

"What?"

"The flash"

Had he not seen it? It was definitely there. Maybe to do with me being in the game somehow.

"There was no flash for me. Maybe it's because of the screencap I just took" he said, and my frown fell away only for my cheeks to flush again. Why did I even bother trying.

"Delete it! I probably look like shit!" I grumbled, finishing my braid and dropping my arms to cross over my chest.

"I doubt it, it'll be fine" he said, and I stomped toward the door grumbling. Leaving the lights on to keep the house lit, I grudgingly stood by the door to close it behind the stubborn masked man.

There was no point in arguing, if he wasn't going to let me win. Plus, it didn't actually bother me, it was more flattering and cute than anything. 

He ran past, headed straight to the fence to climb, and I closed the door.

When we climbed in the chopper and headed up, I started to feel a little nervous. What if the chute doesn't open? What if he don't open it in time? What if it doesn't work with me holding on to him? What if I let go?

I knew this was actually a very dumb idea, especially with me not having my own parachute or a proper harness, but I wasn't going to chicken out. 

By the time we were high over the city, my heart was pounding rapidly, and I was clenching and I clenching my hands. 

"Wait, we don't have a parachute for you" 

I couldn't help but laugh loudly at the idiot next to me. Smiling at him, I was grateful for the words to distract me from my nerves.

It was hard to hear them over the loud whir of the blades above us, slicing through the air, but I still caught them. 

"I thought you realised that? I was just gonna hold on" I said, shrugging. I could hardly hear myself, and the chattering of my teeth didn't help, but I was sure he'd hear me fine. The helicopters weren't this loud normally.

"Wtf, no! That's so dangerous!" He said, and I decided to keep the watch near my ear to hear better. I giggled a little at the way wtf was said, and began more rapidly clenching my hand still in my lap. This wasn't helping my nerves. 

"Too late now, if you don't jump, I'll do it alone" I threatened, not sure if I believed my own braveness. Glancing down, I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. 

"You wouldn't" he said. The drops of the helicopter whenever he typed was scary at first, but I'd gotten more used to it now.

Moving myself to the door, I pressed a hand to it and got ready to jump.


	14. Chapter 14

Please, stop me, I mentally begged.

"I don't think I'll respawn, if I'm honest" I said, just as 'WAIT' was shouted from my arm.

Discreetly letting out a breath, I turned to look at Delirious.

"If you're gonna do it, tie yourself to me or something. I don't trust you just holding on" he said, and I smiled.

"You're fucking crazy" he said, as I climbed across into his characters lap.

Smiling as him nervously, I nodded. 

"I know, I'm not normally this stupid" I said, then laughed a little. "Guess being around you makes me delirious" I winked.

Looking down, I slid my arms from the sleeves of the jacket and untied the string on my pants. It wasn't much at all, but it was hopefully good enough to help.

"Uh, sorry about this, it's probably uncomfortable" I said, smiling awkwardly at the hockey mask. Oh god, I hope he doesn't have it in first person.

"Do you mind?" I said, pointing toward his pants, and glancing around. Not a clue where his camera was.

"This is the weirdest thing I have ever experienced" he said, and I giggled a little, still waiting for a yes or no. 

"Yeah go for it" he said, and I grabbed the hem of his pants, pulling out the strings. By this point, I was blushing a bright red.

Sliding forward, I tied the strings close. Part one done. Next, I slid the jacket off my shoulders entirely, and tucked it under my arms, using the sleeves to tie a knot behind Delirious' back. I made sure to keep my eyes on what I was doing, not wanting to look up.

It was kinda strange, because the character acted as if I wasn't there at all, staring forward, through the glass of the windscreen. I bet this was really weird for Del. he could feel someone pressed up against him, but there was nothing there. Instead, he had to ignore it and focus on keeping the helicopter in the air. 

"I hope this works. And your character can still move properly" I mumbled, as I wrapped my arms tightly around him. "Ok, all set." 

There was no reply, and the character didn't move. He was probably mentally preparing, because after all, I could potentially die tonight. And he'd be entirely involved. Come to think of it, this wasn't fair of me. 

The adrenaline pumping through my veins made me courageous, and stupid, and I'd acted on impulse.

"Hey, I'm sorry for making you do this, it's cool if you don't want to" I mumbled, loosening my arms.

He finally replied, and I was thankful.

"No it was my idea, it's ok." Then a second reply came through. "Just a little off putting with the feelings" he said, and I chuckled and nodded.

"Can't imagine it feels very normal" I agreed, smiling now.

"Ready?" He said, and I again tightened my arms, tucking my head into his chest. 

"Ready" I replied, a little muffled. As the character moved, I got jolted and surprise and relief flooded me. I guess I hadn't fully mentally prepared. Oh well, too late now.

But he was reaching around me smoothly, a definite good sign. 

I still had the headphones on, taking them from the chopper. I didn't want to damage my ears. 

The door flicked up and I tightly wrapped my legs around him, clinging like a koala. 

The noise was loud even through the muffs, and the wind nipped at my arms.

Then, we were falling.

A terrified scream ripped from my throat and my stomach jolted, the air rushing around us chilling me to the bone.

I raised my head and looked over my shoulder, looking at the city below us. We were a fair way up, plenty of room still between us and the highest buildings. 

Eyes stinging from looking into the wind, I turned to look up, noting the we were falling away from the helicopter, which had passed out altitude anyway, and was crashing toward the ground.

Giggles burst from my throat as all my nerves were overtaken with immeasurable joy. This was the coolest thing I'd ever experienced.

I was grateful for the radiant heat from Delirious, and I snuggled my face into him. My arms weren't hurting as much as I expected, but I assumed it was from the current position of the air pushing me against him. 

Wait.

"Oh my gosh, I can feel your body heat!" I shouted, giggling madly. I couldn't help the face splitting grin or laughter that seemed to be a permanent thing for me now.

There was no reply, and I was grateful that he wasn't silly enough to try.

After what felt like forever but was likely only seconds, the character reached around me and pulled a chord, making the parachute release.

We shot upwards and my arms jerked painfully, but I managed to hold on, insanely grateful for the jacket supporting me.

Luckily, I worked out sometimes and actually had some muscle. I definitely would start doing that more often from now on though. 

Letting out a breath of relief I didn't realise I was holding, I smiled at the large net above us. He'd easily pulled it, everything had gone smoothly.

The giggles had actually settled, and now we were left in silence, my awe of the view rendering me speechless.

The wind still blew around us and I still felt cold, but not even the insane shivering could take away my joy.

The city below us shone brightly, giving us light as we drifted through the black sky. It was pretty from the helicopter, but this was a whole different experience.

The silence was broken by an explosion, and I smiled. Guess the chopper 'landed'. 

Looking up to Delirious, I watched the lights dance on the mask, and illuminate the underside of his head, along his jaw and neck. 

I placed my head against his chest, looking calmly across the city as I listened to the heartbeat.


	15. Chapter 15

When we'd landed, Delirious' character had stumbled on the ground, rolling before he stood. And of course, I'd been rolled with him.

It had been an abrupt break in the peaceful silence we'd settled into, when I'd swore loudly.

"Ow! Fuck! Shit, that scared me" I laughed, still keeping myself clung to the man as he stood. When he was up, I placed my feet on the dirt beneath us. He'd been aiming for the grass I'm guessing, but we had missed it by a few metres.

Untying the sleeves and string, I stepped back to finally regain personal space, brushing little rocks from my skin, and from the new graze on my forearm.

It stung a little, but I was alive. And nothing could wipe the huge grin now again spread across my cheeks.

"Del! Oh my god! It worked! I'm alive!" I said, giggling. I had so much energy. I felt drunk, skipping around in circles.

I ran to Delirious and hugged him tightly, constant giggles still streaming from my lips. Then, I took off running down the hill, toward the city lights, waving my jacket in the air.

____________

After a while of just jogging through the streets of Los Santos I stopped, dropping my bum on a sidewalk. Sitting cross cross, I panted as my breathing struggled to level out.

The steps of my partner in crime soon stopped next to me, followed by a second pair of footsteps. 

Looking up, I had a big grin still, but my blue eyes swirled with confusion. Until I caught sight of a money mask, with a cigar hanging from his mouth.

I had hazy recollection of my wrist buzzing at some point as I was running, but I hadn't checked it. I guess;

'Lui Calibre has joined the game'.

Laughing a little deliriously, I pushed myself to my feet and leapt forward to grab him, pulling him into a hug.

"Hi! I'm Luna! It's nice to meet you" I exclaimed, stepping back.

The street lights were shinning down on his mask, making it seem more sinister than it did normally.

Mentally pairing it with his squeaker voice, my giggles increased a little in volume. That'd be the coolest to hear live.

"Hey, nice to meet you too" he said as I dropped myself back into the ground haphazardly, mentally noting that he hadn't mentioned the touch or situation yet. The others had mentioned it pretty fast.

"So, are you like caught up on the situation? Vanoss said he'd written it in the message but Mini hadn't really believed it so..." I huffed out in one breath, pulling the hoody back on now that I was cooling back down. I was mildly sweaty, and the slight breeze was causing it to become cold on my skin. As I was pulling my hood up, Delirious replied to the question. 

"We're in Skype, I was explaining as we ran" he said. 

"So, why're you so happy?" Lui asked, obviously confused at my mood. Guess Del hadn't filled him in on that part. Deciding to not dob the man in, I shrugged.

"Just doing some cool stuff I could never do it real life" I summarised, not lying. 

"Delirious' laugh just then makes that sound very suspicious" he sassed, and I jumped to my feet, marching toward the man with matching clothes. Smacking him up the side of the head, I grumbled.

"I'm trying to cover your ass, you can't just laugh! You're crazy, I swear it" I could just imagine him laughing like a madman 

"Hey wait!" 

Turning back to Lui, I saw him hand raised to point at us.

"You're matching! Cute"

I snorted loudly, placing my hand on my hip. Lifting up my foot a bit, I wiggled it, showing off my converse.

"Not quite, doesn't count" I said cheekily.

"I still think you look like a cute little couple. Just need the mask"

I chuckled, the top of my ears burning slightly, hidden by the hood.

"Oh no! Help me Luna! Delirious just yelled at me!" He said, abruptly turning and taking off running. Laughing, I glanced at Delirious, only to shoot him a wink before taking off after the man in the monkey mask.

Wow, I'm running too much.

Catching up to Lui as he was stealing a car, I flung myself into the back seat.

"Cmon! Drive! He's after us!" I squealed, and seconds later we were shooting down the street. Leaning between the two seats, I watched Delirious in the rear view, climb in another car.

"He's giving chase! We gotta lose him!" I ordered, giggling.

Glancing back through the front windscreen, I noticed that he'd taken the time to get a better car than ours. While he was a decent gap behind us because of it, I'm sure he'd catch up fast.

"He's gonna catch us! We need to shake him or ditch the car!" 

The car slowed and swerved a little, and I glanced at Lui confused. Then, his words came through.

"Hold on tight!" 

Not questioning it, I quickly sat back and clipped the seatbelt, bracing myself for whatever.

The car jolted roughly, and I quickly looked out at the street lamps around us, trying to see what had happened. Only to notice, they were below us.

Grabbing the two seats, I laughed loudly, leaning forward again.

We were now almost nosediving toward the bridge, obviously having taken a ramp. 

Narrowly missing a car, we bounced off the ground, and I was sure if this was real life a tire or two would have popped. Lui wasted no time though, and we were now swerving between cars in the orange light of the bridge lamps. 

Taking a left as soon as we came off the bridge, he started towards a thick building area. Dodging and weaving through the small streets, I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. 

Then, we took a sharp right, stopping in a tiny alley, hidden in shadows. Letting out a breath, I unclipped my seatbelt as Lui climbed out.

"Did we lose him?" I asked, just as I heard tires screeching in the street.

"Map, remember?" He said, and I smacked my forehead. Climbing out of the vehicle to stand behind him, I started to wonder.

"Do I come up on the map?" 

"Huh, no you don't" he answered, and I smirked.

"Cool, don't tell him where I am, I'm gonna jumpscare him" I said, hiding behind a bin right next to the entry of the alley. 

"Oh! And make sure he doesn't shoot me" I added, laughing.

"Don't get shot" he said, as I slid into the spot. There surprisingly wasn't a strong smell, and for that I was grateful. 

Sitting there uncomfortably with almost no vision, I bit my leg. Squatting like this was definitely not helping my already exhausted legs. 

Lifting my watch to distract myself, I brought up the main menu part. It only provided a dim blue light so it wouldn't give away my position.

I could hear Lui running around in the street near the alley entrance, but still no sign of Delirious. 

Flicking through the options, my heart deflated a little as I noticed there was nothing out of the ordinary. No quit option. 

Or at least, I wasn't brave enough to press the normal quit button, just in case it simply killed me. 

Tires squealed to a stop outside of the alley and Lui ran in past, leading an ignorant Delirious.

Dropping my arm, I smirked.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, sorry the chapters are really short. Again, this was my first story. I know now that it'd probably be better with longer, more well rounded chapters, but I was adjusting and learning. Although I still am xD

Climbing out from the dumpster quietly, I ducked in the shadows. As Lui stopped a few metres past my spot, so did Delirious.

"Where's Luna?" He asked, and Luis hand raised, pointing at me. 

"Over there?" Del said, clearly confused as to why I would be over here.

Hopefully, I'm as hidden as I think I am. His character turned, and he took some steps toward me, clearly deciding to play along. Mistake. 

Taking my opportunity, I sprung out from the spot, diving for his character, as a high pitched squeal bubbled from my throat. Stopping just shy or his character, I started giggling as I just as quickly moved back. And rightly so, as I only just dodged the fist swung toward my face.

Stumbling, I fell on my butt, and just laughed.

"WHAT THE FUCK" came through my watch, quite loudly, but it only made me laugh harder. 

"That even made me jump and I knew it was coming" came from Lui, who's character was now besides Delirious.

"You were in on it?!" He shouted, before attacking the monkey masked man. I was now leant up against the wall, sat in the shadows, shaking.

The tears were streaming down my face and my hands were pressed to my stomach as quite gasps escaped me every now and then.

My lungs were starting to hurt from lack of air.

Raising my palms to my closed eyes, I wiped the tears, slowly regaining my breath. Mentally counting to ten to calm myself, I opened my eyes, watching the car and mouse chase that was happening near the car.

As Lui jumped from the car and ran toward me, I stood, stepping in front of him. "Alright, that'll do. You have to admit that was golden" I said, rubbing my sore cheeks. 

"That wasn't cool Luna!" He said, and I smirked.  

"It so was, I bet you laughed" 

"After you screamed like a bitch" Lui said, and immediately Del tried to step around me. Turning a little, I slapped Lui's stomach, tutting at him. 

"Don't stir, you jumped too"

"Shut up"

I only laughed.

Walking from between them, I exited the alley, looking around for Del's car. Spotting it a little up the road, half on the sidewalk, I walked towards it. 

"Next plan" I called to them "I want to steal a tank"

"What?! No!" Came from the squeaker, and I pouted. Opening the back door to the car, I slid in.

"Aww, pretty please?" I whined, looking at the two running toward me. 

"Do you know how often we die trying that stuff?" Lui argued, and I frowned. It's true, but what else are we meant to do?

I'd spent the time on the beach thinking of ways I could get out of here, and hadn't thought of one.

I had no clue how I was in here in the first place, how that was even possible. How was I meant to know how to get out? Maybe, we could look for anomalies in the world, anything different or out of place to how the GTA map normally was.

But, that'd take days. A week, if not more. And we could still miss it. Yet, it's better than immediately assuming I was stuck here, and putting my life on the line to take my mind off of the situation at hand.

Nodding to the two people in the front seats, I posed my new plan.

"Ok well, what if we look for anything different? Anything out of place. We'll have to do it by segments, though, make sure we miss nothing. Try and find a way out for me?"

It was a drastic change of plans, and probably seemed pretty random, but I needed to think clearly. Lui was right, I couldn't just die.

"I can screen cap and print the map?" Delirious said, and I smiled agreeing. 

"I'll take us to the bottom left. Are we searching the ocean too? One of us could take a chopper or boat" Lui said, making a U-turn and driving down the street. 

"We probably should. Just a quick check over. You guys can do that while I check buildings? If I can go inside everything then it's better to be safe than sorry I think" 

The drive settled into silence then, and I sank down into the back seat. It wouldn't be too long of a drive, but I'm tired.

Drifting off slowly, I started humming a song quietly to myself. They could probably hear it, but I was too out of it to care.

My watch vibrated and started making sounds, causing my eyes to flicker open. Noticing we were put front of 'my house', I frowned. 

"It wouldn't let me screen cap, so I printed from Google. Every time we update it I'll take a photo of it and send it to the group chat" said Delirious, and I rubbed my eyes softly, yawning.

"Sounds good. I think we should start tomorrow though, she needs sleep. I'll come back in the morning. Do you have videos to edit?" He asked, not noticing I'd woken up. Although, it was slightly silly of him, with my watch speaking their words. Maybe they can't hear it?

"Yeah, I'm gonna record with Ohm, Luke, and Bryce too, I'll try my best to join again at night. Someone else will probably be able to help."

"I'll ask a few of the guys. We need to wake her up somehow, get her inside" Lui said, and I decided I should finally open my eyes. Blinking a few times, I sat up with a soft smile.

"Sorry, I fell asleep." I mumbled, looking toward the house. "Bed time?"

"Bed time." Delirious confirmed, and I nodded.

'Delirious has left the game'

'Lui Calibre has left the game'


	17. Chapter 17

Lui and I were currently in a boat, bouncing off the waves as we crashed into them at a high pace. I was glad I didn't get seasick, because we were far out by this point. It was fairly early in the morning, and the sun was rising over the waves at the moment. 

The salty air whipped my pony tail out behind me and the splashes from the waves left a salty sheet against my body. I had to blink against the splashes every now and then, and my tongue was coated in a gross salt taste, but nothing was stopping my loud laughs. 

Lui was in the driver seat, looking around the oceans. He's decided today we were going to spend the entire day checking the water so we could cross off the vast area. Me, I was more focussed on trying to balance toward the back end of the boat. 

Delirious' cost was sitting next to the monkey masked man, so I had something dry and warm to put on when the wind started getting to me. But for now, I was happy back here.

After a few hours, we approached a large boat, looking like a smallish cruise ship, and I smiled. 

"Lui! Break time! Stop over there, I'll climb on, you can go make yourself lunch! Or, morning tea? It's like 9 right? I don't know. Go pee and get food!" I said, squealing a little as the boat abruptly turned and I almost fell off the side.

We came to a stop toward the back of the anchored boat, and I shook my wet arms off a lettle.

"Thank god you offered, I'm starving. I need Cheerios!" 

I couldn't help but imagine that in his child voice, and I laughed. 

"It's all good man, how much map have we covered?"

"We've been kinda lapping to make sure we didn't miss anything. We've got about half of the water fully covered though."

"No rifts in the sky, no spaceships, nothing" I said, pursing my lips. 

"Nothing" he confirmed, and I shrugged half heartedly.

"All well. Go eat and pee and relax, I'll explore the boat. Leave your character in this though" I said, walking toward a ladder hanging from the back of the boat. The rungs weren't rusted and I was in awe of the simple thing. Any boat in real life would be rusty and covered in brown marks. 

Laughing lightly at myself, I climbed up onto the boat. I'd been on this in game, and I knew it was empty and safe. Meaning, I also knew my way around. Heading straight to the pool, I stripped off my shirt and rolled up the pants as high as I could, then dropped into the cool depths.

If felt nice, the clear water washing the salt from my body immediately. I opened my mouth to wash my tongue and was surprised as I tasted the H2O. It wasn't chlorinated, or salty in the slightest. It tasted completely clean, as if it were filled with water from a mountain spring. 

Surfacing, I cupped my hands and gratefully drank some. I wasn't hungry because if eaten a muesli bar I'd brought only a little while back. But, I'd forgotten completely about water. Stupid me, forgetting the main thing.

"I wonder if there's anything I can use to store this" I mumbled to myself, pulling my body onto the deck. I laid my shirt out to dry in the sun, before I went looking. Or, delirious' shirt? I don't know. I wish I had underwear though, these pants were retaining a lot of water.

Before I entered the inside part of the ship, I unrolled the pants legs and squeezed them off to the best of my ability, not willing to remove them to wring them out. Not while in a game with someone else around. 

Walking through the rooms, I made my way to the bottom deck. While I couldn't find a bottle of anything, I did find a bucket, with a kid sitting under it. It'll have to do.

Making my way back to top deck, I filled my bucket, then collapsed in the sun, glad the burn hadn't been bad from the other day with Delirious. Hopefully, today doesn't give me a bad one either. Too bad I didn't have sunscreen. Maybe I'll have to look for some.

About 40 minutes later, Lui returned, scaring the life out of me.

"I'm back bitches!" Came from my watch, attached to the arm I had resting over my face.

Leaping up, I grabbed my chest and swore loudly.

My pants were almost fully dry by this point, thankfully, and the shirt definitely was.

Slipping it over my head, I climbed on the ladder, and watched a boat move toward me. When it stopped below, I dropped into it, and smiled at Lui. 

"Here we go, my good friend! Part two of our ocean adventure!" 

"Here we go!" He said back, and we took off again. 

By the time we finished mapping out the ocean,  it was late afternoon. I'd pulled the jacket back over my arms when it hit about 4 and the sea breeze had finally gotten to me.

Lui had taken a few breaks over the day, but had stayed till we finished the ocean. When he took breaks, I'd taught myself how to drive the boat, and had continued the search myself, boating slowly through the inlets, until I came out the other side, or had to turn back. 

My eyes had spent a lot of time observing the crystal waves, and the bright sun. The city on the sides of the inlets and the bridges going over top. 

I was truly in awe of the visuals in the game, never noticing just how pretty everything was until I'd seen it through my own eyes and not my characters.

The time alone was nice, because I could just enjoy the lapping of waves, and let my thoughts  take over. With Lui, it was nice still, but I needed time to think. 

With no luck all day, I was a little disheartened. Although, I hadn't entirely expected to see anything. 

Lui and I had talked when ever he'd stopped the boat to mark his map, and at one point just floated for a while and got to know each other. 

He told me how YouTube was the best thing that had ever happened to him, and how happy he was with his life. I told him about how I'd moved out and was scared of being alone but was managing. 

We discussed our childhoods and funny memories we had, and if had a good amount of laughter over the day.

It had been really good.

Why, then, did I just want to cry?

We pulled up at a dock, and climber out, leaving the boat floating gently. 

"Thank you so much for helping man" I said, my words not showing just how appreciative I was. Leaning forward, I wrapped him in a tight hug.

"Your butt is probably super numb, you spent all day. I really appreciate it" I said, tightening my grip for a second before I leaned away again. 

"You're totally welcome, I need to go though, I've gotten a headache from staring at the screen all day" he said, and I frowned guiltily.

"I hope you feel better, sorry for keeping you."

"No I chose to help, it's all good. I'll be back when I can. Delirious said he was joining at some point if he could, I'll send the map to everyone so they can update their shit" he said. I nodded, still feeling bad.

"Sounds good, I'll just head back to my house for a bit" I said, before correcting myself. "No, wait! Sunscreen, I need sunscreen" I pouted at the sting already coming rom my red skin.

"I'll talk to you later" he said, and I nodded. 

"Feel better" I said, then turned to walk away. My watch buzzed and I ignored it. Sunscreen, then an afternoon nap. 

I really don't feel like doing anything else today.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, sorry if there are word counts or author notes left at the ends of any chapters, I'm copying it across from wattpad.

My legs were pulled up under me as I sat on the couch, staring at the window on the far wall. Instead of studying the darkening sky outside, I was staring intently at the grooves in the windows frame, blue eyes tracing the lines with bored curiosity. 

I'd only woken up from a nap a short while ago, and to my surprise, my skin hadn't been in too much pain upon waking. There was a warmth radiating from the stinging areas, but nothing that wouldn't heal up in a day or two. Thank the lord for my skin not being the type to easily fry.

A buzz from my wrist caused me to jump slightly, knocking me from my daydreaming, before a smile spread across my cheeks. Glancing down confirmed what I expected.

"H2O Delirious has joined the game"

Jumping off the couch, I trotted off toward the bathroom to make sure my hair was presentable after my rest.

The air was a little crisp, but I still had the blue hoody on from when I was cold earlier, which I was thankful for. Tugging the sleeves down over my hands, I frowned when the watch buzzed again. Then again. And once more after that. As I was struggling to pull the sleeve back over the big nuisance, an unfamiliar tone came from it. 

"Hello? This works?"

The tone wasn't one I'd heard come through the watch, yet there was a tug in the back of my mind, telling me I knew who it was. Drawing in my lip, I stopped to open the bathroom door, before finally pulling the sleeve up. 

"Ohmwrecker has joined the game"

"BryceMcquaid has joined the game"

"CaRtOoNz has joined the game"

Oh, boy. Delirious had brought the group he said he was recording with. Not that I wasn't excited to meet the men, who I also watched a bit, I just wasn't expecting to be meeting more new people. Normally, I was an antisocial ball of awkward, I'd met more people in the past few days than I had in the past few months of my life.

Considering I couldn't reply to who I was assuming was Cartoonz, I simply dropped my arm and stepped up to the mirror. Breath in, breath out. Ok. Wait, I have to keep doing that. Rolling my eyes at my stupid self, I lifted my hands, petting down the flyaway hairs that had escaped the quick plait from before I'd fallen asleep. To my dissatisfaction, I'd discovered that just like the need to eat and drink, I also had all my usual hygiene needs. And my hair had needed a wash earlier, so I'd bought the works when I'd gotten my sunscreen. However because it'd been washed earlier, it wasn't staying in its plait very well.

Wish a sigh, I pulled the hair tie from my brown waves and grabbed a brush from a drawer.

Hearing a loud crash outside, I laughed quietly, heading to the front door as I continued to brush my long waves.

"Let us in!"

"Knock Knock!"

Pausing on the other side of the door instead of opening it, I called out;

"Whos there?"

A mixture of replies came back, but I focused on the voice who decided to humor me, clearly catching on to my silly little joke.

"Interrupting cow!"

I laughed quietly, knowing what was coming.

"Interrupting co-"

"MOO"

A grin made its way onto my face as little giggles tumbled out.

"Why, Bryce! Are you calling yourself a cow?" I said as I opened the door. To my delight, I'd guessed the person right, as in front of me was a character I'd never seen. Huh, had I really never seen a Bryce GTA? Had he uploaded any before? Clearly I needed to watch his things a bit more often. 

I could just imagine his laughter, which made my giggles increase. Stepping out of the road, he moved into the house, three other people in tow.

"So, uh, Hi. I'm Luna" I started as they filed in, stopping near the couches.

"Oh, we know. Delirious had informed us all about you" Cartoonz said, causing my already warm cheeks to heat with a blush. Hopefully the burn hid it from them.

"Oh, really? Hopefully nothing bad" I said, as a splutter of denial came from the person in question.

"That depends what you consider bad" came in reply, dripping with cheekiness. I was sure at least one of them were wiggling their eyebrows. Waving my hand with a 'pshhh', I decided to change the topic. 

"It's cool to meet you guys anyway, you're funny as hell. I try watch all of your videos. As you can imagine, it means I don't have much of a life" I chuckled, hoping they wouldn't react to my fan-ness awkwardly.

"Thank you, it's cool to meet anyone who enjoys out content. We appreciate all the support" Came from Ohm, and I turned to him.

"Of course! I'm kinda like the first fan to meet you right? That's weird." I said, before pulling a face. "I worded that badly. I mean like for me it's almost as if I'm talking with you face to face, instead of through interwebs" I smiled awkwardly, cracking my knuckles because of my nervous habit. 

"Interwebz?" Asked Delirious before Ohm could send his reply. I held out a finger in his direction, not looking away from Ohm.

"Hush you. Yes, Interwebs." I said, nodding a little to Ohmie to continue. 

"I mean, yeah I guess. To me you're on a screen so it's not the same for me." He sent, before a second message quickly followed it. "Although, I can easily say it's the weirdest way I've ever communicated with anyone, viewer or not" I almost snorted at that, but instead just laughed good naturedly. 

"Cool enough for me" I said, poking my tongue out. Without thinking, I walked toward Delirious and slung my arm over his shoulder. "So, are you guys staying?"

A chorus of 'Yes' and 'Yup' followed, and I grinned, before looking to the crazy one beside me, who hadn't answered.

"Wouldn't ditch ya" He said, and for some odd reason, the tone of the message caused my cheeks to flush again. Oh wow, I'm a mess.


	19. Chapter 19

"Get out of the road!" I screamed out, slamming my palm onto the car horn. Or, golf cart horn.

Swerving around Cartoonz, I laughed loudly, purposely making it sound crazy. We were headed across the expanse of a large green field, racing to the other side. Although, I could run faster than we were moving.

"Take this bitch!" Came from Delirious, and moments later I heard an explosion. Glancing behind me, I watched Delirious' cart appear through a cloud of smoke, passing by Cartoonz who was stood beside his sideways vehicle. 

I laughed as I watched Bryce's character stumble away from the explosion, somehow making it out alive. Delirious was gaining on me because I'd slowed to look back.

"You'll never catch me!" I called, laughing into the cold nights air. I slammed my foot down on the gas like I was in a high speed chase, leaning forward in my seat as if it would make me faster.

"Can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man" 

I was giggling uncontrollably, ignoring the quiet complaints coming from my watch about Bryce's destroyed vehicle and me pushing Cartoonz over. We weren't cheats, just... Competitive and innovative.

Seeing a flash of blue in the corner of my eye, I slammed my foot on the brakes as Del appeared in front of the cart. My heart was pounding, but I didn't let my shock stop me, no way was I being caught. 

Launching myself from my seat, I dodged Ohms vehicle as it passed, and took off in the direction of our path of destruction.

Cartoonz, or Luke's, cart was now stood straight, and Bryce was driving it in circles around the owner. Until he stepped forward, throwing the thief from the seat and climbing in himself.

Grabbing Bryce before he could try to take the buggy again, I spun him in front of me.

"Save me!" I said, panting to regain air.

"You'll never escape" Delirious said, pausing to stop in front of my barricade. I could just imagine the insane laughter, and I couldn't help the little laugh that escaped my lips. 

"Bryce, you'll protect me won't you?" I said, curling against his back to hide myself as much as possible.

"I'll protect you!" He said, and I snorted as his character sprung for Delirious, swinging a fist to his face. 

I took a few steps away, laughing at the scene as I prepared to run. But then I realised it wasn't necessary, as a golf cart swept in and took out both of them, bouncing as it went across them. 

The thud noises were kinda gross, but I couldn't help the loud laughs that bubbled up from my stomach. Placing a hand flat against my stomach, I sent a thumbs up to Ohm, who was looping back around for a second attack.

"What the hell man!" Delirious called, and I started clapping with delight. 

Luke stopped in his reclaimed ride next to me, and I wasted no time in climbing on the side.

"Mush! Ya! Forward, noble steed!" I laughed, probably catching the others attention as we started toward the nearest road.

Crossing the road, we started climbing the hill on the other side and approaching an old wooden shed. The cart was going super slow against the incline, and I could knew they were after us.

Mainly, from the loud smashing of two cars on the road.

My quick look back showed a totalled golf buggy, and an angry driver beating Ohm up. They were standing in the car lights, making it look like the fight scene from a movie. Cool.

Climbing in next to Cartoonz, I threw an arm over his shoulder, secretly enjoying his warmth. I'm not weird, I swear, there's just a slight breeze at the top of this hill.

"Thanks for the ride, my man" I said cheekily, doing the call me symbol with a wink to him.

"I can feel you!" He said, and I frowned. It sounded more like acceptance than shock though. Although, the wording caused my face to change back to the cheeky grin.

"You can feel me any time you want" I said in a mock seductive voice, until my laughter broke the charade.

"Yeah Del wasn't lying, I felt it before!" Bryce said, causing me to look back as I remembered they were meant to be chasing.

Ohm was fighting more people now, and Bryce was helping a bit. Delirious however, was climbing the hill at a steady pace. The only lights illuminating this area were the street lights shining up, and the angle of illumination made him seem much more creepy than normal.

Squealing quietly, I climbed from my spot and headed for the shed, sticking to the outside wall and ducking in the shadows. When I made it to the back, I crouched and calmed my breathing to listen. 

Oddly enough though, I couldn't hear him. All the sounds I could hear were the gun shots that had started in the street. 

"Boo"

I leapt away from the noise, which actually lead me straight into the chest of Delirious, considering the noise was actually my watch.

Gasping, I pushed my self away, before laughing at myself. I just got double scared.

Winking at him, I turned on my heel and ran from him again, out from behind the shed and toward the street.

At the top of the hill, my foot crashed into a rock, and I stumbled, before losing my balance. The first collision had me bouncing, my eyes tightly closing against the spinning world as I tried to curl my arms around my head. The next few came in quick succession, each sending a jolt of shock through my body.

I could feel little rocks catching on my clothing and jabbing into my skin as I rolled, before coming to stop with a loud groan.

Opening my eyes, I saw two headlights right in front of me.


	20. Chapter 20

Groaning, I sat up, looking around the dark room. My lounge room was as it had been when I fell asleep. 

Wait, fell asleep? No. 

Looking down at my arms, which were throbbing as if cut and bruised, I noticed they were clear. Smooth skin, with the same small scars scattered around that I'd gathered over my childhood. 

I was still wearing the same clothing I'd fallen asleep in, the same red converse on my feet, the same braid holding back my brown waves. 

I noticed the dried tears on my face, the stiff feeling and saltiness on my lips confirming them. I'd... Cried? Why?

I grabbed my Iphone of the table, noticing it was low battery, when I'd only charged it before sleeping. Pressing the home button caused a burning light to shine against my blue eyes, temporarily blinding me.

Blinking a few times, I squinted at my phone. 20th. It's the 20th? Either I slept for multiple days, or I was in that game. But, how? How was I out? 

A small smile slowly started spreading, becoming a huge grin within seconds as giggles flowed from my mouth. I'm out! 

My body was in intense pain and it hurt to move much, but I was out. Maybe I'm dehydrated or something.

Unlocking my phone, I pulled down the notification tab and started scrolling through the mass. Likes, reblogs, messages, the lot.

I frowned when I opened my messages, seeing lots of missed call alerts, voicemails, and one final- "you're fired."

I ground my teeth together a bit, writing out a text to apologise before just deleting it. My manager hated me since the owner hired me over his son, it was no use in trying to convince him to let me stay. Unless I had an irrefutable excuse, like really ill, paired with a doctors note, he wasn't going to listen.

Still frowning in frustration, I closed the messages for a later time. I'd been saving money for a holiday so at least id have something to cover rent and food till I found a new job. Rubbing a hand over my face then resting my chin on my palm, I took a deep breath. 

Twitter was one of the last things I opened, my hopes were that they'd tweeted out something, just so I could confirm it wasn't a dream. 

Going to Delirious' Twitter, I smiled. Right at the top, a one worded tweet.

"Luna?"

I scrolled through the comments below. Some people excited over him saying their name and many confused people, among the usual hellos and the strange comments. 

If I replied, he probably wouldn't even see it. And If he did, it probably wouldn't be believable. Hmm.

I clicked out of his page to check the other four that had been in the game, but there were no related tweets. Ohmwrecker was the last Twitter I checked, meaning his was currently open in front of me. Bringing up the tweet option, I started writing.

"(At)Ohmwrecker hey man, it's Luna-" 

No wait that's too casual. Uh, how do I even say this?

"(At)Ohmwrecker it's Luna, idk what happened. I'm all good though" 

There. Did they even care though? Maybe they thought the 'hacker' had finally just got bored of toying with them. No, I'm pretty sure they were convinced, they knew I was real. And I may have been lying in a way but there was no noticeable marks on my body so the pain could be pushed to the back of my mind. That'd just worry a person.

But then, would he even believe it was me? Shit. Oh!

Lifting my phone up, I opened the camera. Wow, I look like shit. Laughing a little to myself, I took advantage of the smile and gave a strange wave at the camera, clicking the button. Glaring a little at the screen, I shrugged. They'd probably go to bed soon, it was late. No point in messing around with a selfie.

Pressing send, I anxiously watched my notifications for any sign he'd seen it. Believed it. Maybe the tweet Delirious had sent out was a complete coincidence and I'd dreamt it?

I started chewing on my lip with nerves and left my phone on my lap. What's that saying about watched things never doing stuff? Er... Watched grass never grows? Something like that.

A vibration against my leg caused me to jump, launching me back from my thoughts. 

Quickly picking up my phone, I looked at the top notification, only to see nothing. Instead, there was a little one on the message tab. 

Clicking across, my mouth dropped at the top message. Or, top group chat. I'd basically met the people, I shouldn't be so shocked at being in a conversation with them. Although, until now I'd still kind of assumed it was a dream. And anyway, I'd only spoken to their characters and heard their replies through a watch on my arm. 

Glancing down at my bare wrist, I pursed my lips. Oh, harden up.

Opening the messages, a smile immediately spread across my face.

"Ohmwrecker- this is Luna everyone"

"CaRtOoNz- you just caused me a heart attack girl"

"Bryce Mcquaid- how did you even get out?"

And as I watched, a new one appeared.

"H2O Delirious- are you ok?"

Deciding to continue with my lie, I typed out my reply.

"LunaLirious- I'm fine, woke up where I fell asleep. What happened?!"

"H2O Delirious- you got hit by a cop car, thought you died" 

"LunaLirious- oh"

"LunaLirious- that'd explain why I feel like I've been hit by a car. No scratches or anything tho"

"Bryce Mcquaid- "shit! You said you were fine! How bads the pain?"

"CaRtOoNz- I ship it"

"LunaLirious- manageable. It'll go away. So, maybe I died and that's what it took to leave?" 

Cartoonz and I sent our messages at the same time, and immediately I frowned in confusion.

"LunaLirious- huh?"

"Ohmwrecker- haha"

And then my cheeks flooded with warmth and I realised what he meant. Quickly leaving the conversation, I changed my Twitter name to the same thing my (at) was, getting rid of all evidence I could.

Hesitantly opening the conversation again, I typed a one word reply.

"Luna Cameron- fuck"


	21. Chapter 21

I sat crossed leg on the couch, picking bits of fluff and hair off my tracksuit leg, scowling down at my phone in my free hand. Damn my own stupidity, Delirious probably thinks I'm just a silly fan now.

"Bryce Mcquaid- aw why'd you change it? It was perfect the way it was"

I couldn't help the small laugh that bubbled up as I imagined the wide smile Bryce was probably sporting over the situation. I swear that boy had the widest smile ever. Poking my tongue out between my teeth, I slid my fingers across the screen.

"Luna Cameron- what changed? Idk what you're talking about" 

"CaRtOoNz- nice try but we all saw"

I was kind of worried as to what the quiet Delirious was thinking, but at the same time I couldn't deny the humour of the situation. 

"Luna Cameron- you're blind toonz, too much time in front of a computer. Didn't your mum ever tell you about square eyes?"

"Bryce Mcquaid- hahaha"

"CaRtOoNz- so we're all blind?"

"Ohmwrecker- my eyesight and memory is doing ok and I saw it"

I pouted at them all, typing a reply before deleting it. Probably best not to tell him he's an old fart. 

"Luna Cameron- you're all ganging up on me D':"

"Bryce Mcquaid- your knight in shining armour will protect you"

"Luna Cameron- he's not doing a very good job"

Delirious had been quiet for a while, come to think of it. Maybe we should change topic. 

Standing up, I took my phone with me to the kitchen and started grabbing out the ingredients for a fruit smoothie, scowling at the off milk. I ignored the vibrations of my phone as I made myself early breakfast, only looking back at it when I started the blender.

"Ohmwrecker- maybe he fell asleep"

"CaRtOoNz- probably, it's late as fuck. The sun will be up soon"

"Ohmwrecker- yeah I might go to bed"

"Bryce Mcquaid- I just finished editing a video so same"

"CaRtOoNz- remind me not to stay up this late again, I'm gonna be grouchy all day tomorrow"

"Ohmwrecker- lol I'll be tired. Night guys"

"Bryce Mcquaid- Goodnight everyone"

Throwing in my two cents I added a- "Luna Cameron- sleep well guys (:", before I noticed I had another notification.

Leaving the group conversation, I saw one new message right below it, with the sender being one H2O Delirious.

"H2O Delirious- you didn't have to change it. I liked it" 

My cheeks flooded with colour as I turned and stopped the blender, unplugging it from the wall. I had a small smile fighting to grow into a full blown one as I went back to my profile and again edited it.

"LunaLirious- I liked it too so ;3"

I busied myself with putting away everything I'd gotten out, trying to push down the nerves from my flirty message. I'm pretty sure I was fine to send it but there was always a chance of interpreted wrong. Hell, I didn't even know if he was single. 

But then, Luke was the one who's first said he shipped us, and he'd know whether he was taken or not. Right? He could have been joking...

My phone buzzed and I quickly unlocked it, and if I were a cat I'd be purring at the reply.

"H2O Delirious- much better. I need to sleep too, I'm sure I'll sleep well. I'll dream of you ;)"

I wasn't quite sure how to reply, so I typed out and deleted my message a few times, before settling on a simple-

"LunaLirious- Goodnight :3 "

The last thing I checked before leaving the app was the new notifications, showing a follow from both Bryce and Delirious. And it shocked me a little if I'm honest, normally they only followed their friends or people of importance, probably so that their feed was easy to sort through. Maybe I was considered a friend then?

I had a large grin the entire time I drank my smoothie.

_____

The sun had only just risen and I was currently standing outside a little cafe, running clothes on my body and a light sheen of sweat coating my skin.

I should start running every morning, I feel so good at the moment. I mentally snorted to myself as I entered the shop. As if that'll happen.

Going to order, I asked for a bottle of water, paying the half asleep man behind the counter. 

Taking a seat in the corner of the empty shop, I breathed deeply. The entire shop was filled with the smell of cookies, freshly removed from the oven. While fresh and still warm cookies are one of the most heavenly things on this planet, I'm not hungry at all. Or at least, I know better than to indulge my rumbling stomach. 

Sipping at the bottle, I couldn't help but let my mind wander. So, I was in a game. How? None of my questions had been answered, I didn't know how I'd gotten in, or how I'd gotten out. Do I just continue my life as if it's never happened?

But then that posed an even more important question.

Was this a one time thing?

None of it made sense. It was impossible to just be in a game, plus I happened to have landed myself in with my favourite youtubers. 

The thought trailed off and I started thinking about the youtubers themselves. How were they feeling on this whole situation? I was almost certain that at least one or two still doubted the situation and had just gone along with it to humour everyone. And Nogla, I wanted to talk to him. He'd been on my side but then he'd left and I hadn't gotten a chance to speak with him.

And Delirious. 

The man was confusing me, leaving me delirious myself. I felt intoxicated, I couldn't think straight, and I was overly excited. Not like a fangirl though, no. It was the flirting, and the small crush I was possibly developing. But at the same time, that worried me. 

Why? Because as much as I liked his personality, I knew hardly anything about him. Not his age, or even how he looked. What if I couldn't find myself attracted to him, had I then basically led him on?

Letting my eyes sweep the road outside, I watched as cars drove past, people waking up, the city starting to come to life.

I live in the same city as him. I wonder if I've ever seen him and not known? The city is a big place though and I've never seen Cartoonz either, who also lives here.

Shrugging, I screwed the cap back onto my bottle and stood, heading for the door.


	22. Chapter 22

It was around 7pm and I was currently cooking dinner, a simple dish of butter chicken with rice. My phone was playing music loudly beside me, and I was singing along loudly, as I always did.

Singing was my passion, what I wanted to do for a living as a child. I had a natural talent for it but had progressed a lot when I'd taken singing lessons for years when I was younger. 

Swinging my hips, I stirred around the almost finished dish, before skipping towards the fridge, empty wine glass in hand.

Pulling out my drink, I filled the glass with what was left of the bottle, pouting as I sat the empty container on the sink. 

Switching off the gas on the stove, I sipped my at the liquid in hand before sitting in down.

Pirouetting poorly, I stopped and booty dropped in time with the song, giggling to myself. Pulling up the band of my blue to purple gradient leggings while wiggling my bum, I started laughing harder.

At what? I wasn't entirely sure. But it was funny.

I put my food into a bowl and grabbed a fork, carrying it and my glass to the counter like bench along the wall of my kitchen. Turning and grabbing my phone, I sat to eat.

As I ate, I flicked through notifications, replying to friends and checking things. I hadn't told anyone about what had happened with the game, and I had no intentions of doing so. They wouldn't believe it anyway.

I hadn't gotten any messages from the guys, including in the group conversation, they were probably busy though so I didn't mind at all.

After nearly no time at all, I finished my food and, to my disappointment, my glass of wine.

Taking the stuff over to the sink, I began to gather all the dirty things to wash. When everything was piled at the side, I started the water running and put in the wash soap then made my way over to the fridge. 

With an evil grin, I pulled out a mud shake cruiser I had left over from a work party two weeks back. I'd only brought them as a casual drink and three of four had been left over. I didn't actually drink often at all, so a lot of the time I had things left over that just went to the fridge. 

Opening it and taking a sip, I grinned. Man these are good, you can't even taste the alcohol side. 

Turning the tap off, I changed playlist on my phone to my party one, and swung my butt back and forth as I washed things. Occasionally singing into my fist as if I were holding a microphone. 

When everything was done and I was sitting on the couch with three empty cruiser bottles next to me, I yawned loudly. I still need to catch up with the videos I missed over the week.

Bringing up a new BasicallyIDoWrk video, I laid down with my phone in front of my face. 

It was only moments before my eyes fluttered shut and darkness consumed me.

________

The loud sound of a train rumbling past had me frowning as I curled into a tighter ball. Somewhere to my left, I could hear strange laughter and random grunts, sparking my curiosity.

The air smelt damp and almost stale and it was cold, and when I opened my eyes all I saw was the bottom of a cement platform.

Looking down, I noticed a pink onesie covering my body, it's zipper running down my front. The feet were covered, as were the hands which were fitted like gloves. Reaching up, I felt what felt like dog ears. 

A man with two blank eyes ran around the corner pausing a few steps from me. He was covered in a yellow fox onesie, which kind of reminded me of pikachu. 

Giggling at the thought, I pushed my drunken self to my feet, stumbling towards the character in front of me.

Wrapping my hand around his arm, I admired the fluffiness of the yellow clothing, cooing at the adorable creature. 

I wonder if I look that cute?

Lifting my hands up to my cheeks, I smooshed them together creating a fish lip look. While my hands were up I noticed a familiar watch wrapped around the same arm as before. How hadn't I noticed that?

Stumbling toward the light, I came out beside some stairs, jumping as another train passed in front of me. 

Oh! I'm in a subway. I know this place! It's that game!

Giggling again at my thoughts, I placed my palm against the wall to try to balance myself, and moved to the front of the stairs.

In front of me was a flurry of colours, multiple different characters leaping at each other and throwing punches, grunting and laughing.

As I sat on a step, I noticed the pikachu had followed me around. This was meant to be Cartoonz right? Was this another 8 player Gang beasts?

A yellow hand reached out and grabbed onto a piece of my pink onesie, pulling me towards him. 

I laughed at the action, falling into its arms and wrapping my own around it.

Sitting my chin on his shoulder, I noticed most of the fighting had stopped now, the characters standing mostly still aside from some flailing limbs, and a red dinosaur head banging at the side. 

A purple chicken started walking towards us, a hand raising to point at my arms. Frowning, I looked where he pointed, lifting the arm on top to wiggle it, eyebrows raised.

There was no response, so I let go of Cartoonz and stepped away, raising the other arm with the watch, and shook it in question instead.

Immediately, the chicken headbanged as if nodding, and I snorted in reply. Wiggling the other arm again, I frowned at it, then at him. 

I waited a moment, before lifting the watch arm again, pointing at it. And again, purple chicken 'nodded', bopping comically up and down.

Unable to hold in my laughter, I burst out into hysterics, stumbling backwards and landing on my butt on the stairs. Something had cushioned the fall?

Reaching back, I noticed a tail much to my delight, and I swung it back and forth in my hands as I continued to laugh. 

As I settled a bit, watching a blue chicken and brown bear climb the wall near the back, I lifted up my watch and brought up the menu. 

This time, it was all different. Clicking on a bar labelled 'settings', I blinked at the options. Rubbing my eyes for a second, I forced them to focus on the words before me. 

'Microphone audio; off'

Assuming it meant theirs, because I didn't have one, I switched it across to on.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Around here is when I started learning more about how to write dialogue so hopefully it gets less cringy.

"So you weren't joking"

"How is that possible?!"

"Wait so can we feel if she touches-"

"-we sure it's not a hacker?"

Words flooded in, confused people occasionally overlapping their friends sentences and questions. A large grin spread from cheek to cheek as I took in the voices, actually coming directly through this time, but instead of from my watch, they came through little speakers appearing above the characters heads.

Looking up, I noticed a blue Luchador standing on my other side, opposite the pikachu fox. 

I heard Cartoonz voice cut through the loud talking and the others silent down as he started to speak, but didn't pay attention.

"Dellie!" I giggled, standing and wrapping my little arms around the wrestler. I didn't for a second consider that the characters could have been swapped, but thankfully when the reply came, it was above the right characters head.

"Luna." It sounded like a deep breath was taken, before he continued. "How are you here?"

It was kind of weird hearing the bubbly voice of H2O Delirious sounding low, almost sad. It didn't suit him at all and I wanted to help make it better.

"It was when I fell asleep again. But don't worry!" I hugged tighter, before letting go and pulling back to look into the round white eyes of his character "I can just stop sleeping!" 

In the back of my mind I realised that the other chatter had dwindled down to silence, but that didn't matter, all that mattered was getting that laugh back. 

Well, it didn't matter until someone else interrupted.

"You can't just stop sleeping..." 

Turning my head to frown at the brown bear who had spoken, I pulled my arms away from Del, crossing them instead over my chest.

"Why not?" I grumbled, before my hand flew up to slap my forehead. "Oh my gosh, I'm sorry! I'm Luna! And I know everyone here, so don't worry about introductions." I giggled out, skipping toward the brown bear to shake his hand. "Is it cool if I say Marcel?"

"What the-" could be heard mumbled from him, but I just continued talking.

"Or because I don't know you is it better to say Basically? Because I don't want to be rude." The rapid hand shaking stopped and I stepped back, looking around. "Oh hey Ohm!" I called out to the red dinosaur, who had stopped head banging at some point. 

"Hey Luna" was said back, at almost the same time as Marcel spoke.

"Uh, Marcel is fine... You have a strong grip." he huffed out in what sounded like surprise, and I pouted.

"I'm s-"

My sentence was cut off by 407, who jumped in with shock.

"So you did feel it?" He said, and almost immediately I heard at least two sighs of frustration. I guess the repetitive explaining and disbelief was becoming annoying. 

"Yeah dude, I told you!" MiniLadd shouted while running over, the funny thing on top of his light blue chicken onesie head flopping back and forth as he went. "It's so insane!" 

"It's cool, and I don't mean to interrupt," Cartoonz said, walking toward us with Delirious by his side "but we have problems to deal with. One, how do we stop this from happening? And two, how the fuck are we meant to help her out?"

Delirious' characters hand reached out for me as they stopped behind me, and I willingly let myself be pulled into the warm chest with a smile, hiding my face in it.

"How did she get out of the last game?" A new voice said, and without looking over I knew it was Smii7y. 

"Uh," there was an awkward pause, before someone finished the sentence for them.

"We think it was when she died."

"When she died?"

"Yeah, she got hit by a car"

I silently listened to them discus it, the sleepiness caused by the alcohol catching up to me as I blinked my heavy lids. 

"So, she has to be killed-"

"We think."

"We think, yeah. Do we just, erm, put her in front of a train?"

I could almost feel Delirious' muscles tense up through the character at the suggestion.

"And what if we're wrong?" He barked out. "Plus she felt the pain from being hit by the car. Imagine from a train" 

There was an echo of agreeable from some people, and multiple exhales heard over the mics.

"Can we wait it out?" 

I slightly shook my head at that question, mumbling into the chest I was against-

"I need to pee."

"What do you want to do?" Came back a gentle voice, as the others again silenced.

Tears started forming in my eyes as I shrugged slightly, raising one paw to wipe away a drop as it fell.

The alcohols effect was starting to fade slightly by this point, although still present, but I knew what had to be done even though I wasn't quite thinking clearly. I also remembered the pain from the car though, having a stiff shoulder still. I felt bad for Nogla when I accidentally hit him.

More tears were running down my face now and my bottom lip had started quivering, fear flooding my veins at the thought of standing in front of one of those trains.

They'd been passing the entire time, their loud rumble only lasting seconds before they were gone, leaving sound reverberating through the tunnels. 

Squeezing my arms tightly around my friend, I stood straight and looked at everyone, shooting a watery smile to Smii7y who I hadn't previously acknowledged.

"Oh Luna... I'm so sorry" came softly from Bryce as my eyes dropped to the ground at my feet. Letting out a shaky breath which broke the somber silence, I raised both pink hands to run at my eyes before looking back up.

"So uh, Luke or Del, I need to ask a favour then." 

"What's up?" Was Cartoonz's immediately reply as I casually started cracking my fingers from nerves.

"Uhm, if I don't message the group within uh, 20 minutes, will you call an ambulance to my house? Just in case?" My voice trembled as I spoke, clearly showing my fear to everyone listening.

"Hey, you'll be fine" Ohm attempted to calm me a bit, and I smiled toward him appreciatively, despite the fact that none of us knew that. 

"I'll call them. If you don't reply, I'll call them" Delirious directed my attention back to him with a sad voice that showed he obviously didn't like the situation any more than I did. Man, I really killed the mood of this gang beasts.

"Sorry for ruining your game too, and probably your recordings" I laughed lightly, sniffling afterward.

"You don't have to apologise" Marcel said, raising his arms and walking forward. Wrapping my arms around his waist, I gave him a quick hug, before a lump developed in my throat that I had to force away so I didn't burst into heavy tears. Guess it's time.

Walking still a little unsteady toward the tracks on the front side, I listened to the patter of footsteps as everyone followed me to the edge. 

Biting my lip, I slid down over the edge, keeping my face down. Why did I chose the front rails? I don't think they want to see this.

As a train passed on the other side, the terror became too much for me and I burst into tears, loud ugly sobs escaping my throat as I covered my face with my palms.

In the distance I could hear a rumble, vibrations against my feet getting more intense as time passed.

It was only when I moved my hands that I saw a wall of metal fast approaching. It only took seconds before it hit me and I was out cold.


	24. Chapter 24

Gasping out in agony, my eyes shot open, wandering to the ceiling as I gulped in lungful of air. Tears were developing on my waterlines and I had no control to stop them from spilling over and into my cheeks. 

My body ached, and I felt like I'd broken many bones. It felt as if my entire body should be black and blue. I wanted to bring my arms up from beside me and clutch my head, but I felt immobilised from the pain scorching my nerve ends. 

Sitting in the darkness of my loungeroom, I watched the moonlight reflect onto the roof from something I couldn't see, praying my body would go numb soon, or the feeling would fade. 

My skull was pounding with a hangover and likely dehydration, and my eyes stung too. But for some reason I knew I was perfectly fine. Id never been in pain as much as right now, but in the back of my brain something was telling me it was just a sensation.

Shit, the guys.

Scrunching my eyes shut, I took a deep breath in preparation. You've got this, cmon. 

Pulling myself forward, I reached for my phone on my coffee table, grunting out as movement shot new pains through my limbs.

I managed to wrap my petit fingers around the object, and as I dropped back into the couch I mentally cheered in celebration.

Pressing the home button shone a bright light that made me whimper, squinting as I turned down the brightness. While the tab was open, I turned off airplane mode and reconnected to my wifi.

Immediately, my phone was alive with notifications. But, I didn't have enough energy to give a shit about them, I just went straight to Twitter.

Opening the messages showed a total spam of concern, and it was only then that I realised it'd been one and a half hours since I fell asleep. I wasn't in a state to do math, but I only spent about 30 minutes in that game, if that. 

Reading a few of the bottom comments, I realised my stupidity. I'd forgotten to give them my address.

"Bryce Mcquaid- Luna"

"H2O Delirious- please be ok"

"Bryce Mcquaid- wake up!" 

"CaRtOoNz- what the fuck do we do?"

"Ohmwrecker- we could ask if anyone knows her?"

"CaRtOoNz- with the photo?"

Deciding to interrupt before they posted my photo to millions, I forced my fingers to move across my keypad, trying to focus enough to write.

"LunaLirious- don't post no ambulance I live on 16 prairie street it's a houss"

Sending it, I dropped my phone beside me instead of reading the messages, curling into a ball on the cushions.

The stiffness was starting to fade and the pain was reducing as seconds ticked by, although it was still immense. The tears were still steady from my blue eyes as I looked out my window to the few stars I could see.

I watched the clouds flutter across the sky as time passed, and I wanted nothing more than to shut my eyes against the pounding in my head and the ache resonating through my skull. But I wasn't falling asleep again. No way. Not until I found out how to stop this.

A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts and I opened my mouth to respond, only to have nothing come out.

Clearing my throat a bit I made for a second attempt, only managing to squeeze a little- "hello?"- from my parched mouth.

Clearly it was loud enough though, as the knocking stopped and the handle started jiggling.

"Luna?"

I smiled at the voice, grateful someone had come to help when I desperately needed it. 

Pushing myself to a sitting position, I tried to stand on my shaky legs, but they only collapsed under me, making me fall back onto my butt. My muscles were practically useless.

"Jump-" a few coughs interrupted me -"jump the side fence." I called as loudly as I could back, and waited.

Moments later, the familiar bearded face of Luke poked through my now open glass sliding door.

He looked so serious, contradicting with the sideways appearance of just the head, that I couldn't help my laugh. 

It hurt my chest and sent me into a coughing fit, but the smile on my face was worth it. 

As soon as I started spluttering he rushed through the door, practically skidding on his knees to stop in front of me as he dropped down. 

"Hey, hey-" he put a hand on my knee and shook it a little bit- "breathe. In and out"

As soon as I settled myself down, inhaling and exhaling steadily, I smiled at him, meeting his brown eyes.

"Ah, hello Cartoonz." I mumbled cheekily, and he blew out an exasperated breath.

"We thought you died or something, you about gave us all a heart attack. Can you move?" 

Biting my lip, I shoved him back a little, and tried again to stand. 

"Ah fuck," I groaned as I fell forward, luckily being caught by strong arms before I hit the ground. "I can move now but not well. It hurts still."

He sat me back against the couch, and as he backed away, frowning.

"Where hurts?" 

Lifting my hands, I gestured to my whole body, and laughed a little. 

"Everything. It's going away though. Would you mind grabbing me water and panadol though? I have a hangover..." I trailed off, awkwardly smiling to the man. He stepped away and looked around, and I pointed a doorway off the room. "Kitchens over there. Top cupboard is medicine. Cups are next to them"

As I hear him cluttering around in the cupboards, I suddenly realised my situation. In my house was one of my favourite youtubers. It was cool, but at what cost was it? What happens when I sleep next?


	25. Chapter 25

It was now past lunch time and the pain was mostly gone. It just felt like an ache from over exercising the day before, not that I'd felt that for years. My headache was still present, but it was a lot less prominent now. 

I hate drinking. 

"Fuck!" Came from next to me on the couch, Cartoonz swearing as he got killed in the game he was playing, Rainbow Six Siege. My favourite.

Snickering lightly, I nudged his arm with my water bottle, earning a glare my way. Moments of silence later, I snorted and it set us both off, bursting into loud laughter that had me grabbing my head in pain as I laughed.

"Oh my god," I dragged out the word, "don't make me laugh you bitch. You're meant to be a professional gamer."

"I'd like to see you do better!" He huffed, handing me over the controller. I hadn't played at all today, instead opting for watching his rounds as he kept himself entertained. He was really good admittedly, but I was just teasing. It was better on computer because of tilt aim, but I was used to controller by this point anyway. 

Taking the item from his hands, and the headset afterward, I settled into position, leaning slightly forward in my seat as I chose my operator. Glaz, of course. Easily my favourite character, even on the levels such as this one where there weren't ideal long range spots. A lot of people say he's shit, but not every person needs kills. He does damage and makes it easier for team mates to take people out. Assists are good too.

I ignored the person in chat who whined about my choice, and glanced over to my opposition, seeing the frown on his lips too. My microphone was off and I didn't need to listen much as we tracked the hostage, so I started speaking.

"So, I just noticed, where's Delirious?" I was lying of course. I'd thought about it earlier on but didn't want to bring it up and seem like a weird fan.

"I convinced him not to come. He's further away and we don't exactly know you too well so showing his face could have been bad." He said, before quickly adding- "No offence." 

"None taken. That makes perfect sense, I was just curious." I brushed it off, still a little disappointed. Although Luke was cool and had been entertaining to hang with for the day so I was still happy.

"Oh sure you were just curious." He said with a chuckle, but I ignored him as the attack phase started, going the opposite way to all four of my team mates, placing my explosives on the wooden paneling of a window. Exploding it, I peaked in, climbing in when I deemed it safe. 

Sneaking slowly from the room and down a hall, I crouched in a doorway just down from the hostage room, listening as someone moved around in a nearby room.

As soon as I saw them walk through a doorway, they were dead. Moving quickly to a room opposite me instead, I peaked into the room he'd come from, landing a shot on the second guy but not killing him.

Two of my team dead, two of the enemy team. 

Valkyrie ran up from the hostage room, shooting at me and landing a hit, before I took her out, getting killed myself by the person still crouched in the other room.

First round went to us, 2 kills and one assist. Next round started, and I took Valkyrie myself, checking the leaderboard. Second. Damn, I wanted to land MVP if our team won, which I expected it to. Attack, I'm a team player. Defence? Well, let's see if I can get my ace.

I was one off the ace that round, and they won the next round. And the next. 

With a growl of frustration as glaz was taken, I flicked across to Blackbeard. Fuck it, fuck my team. They sucked anyway. If I couldn't get my ace on defence, I was getting it on attack, final round.

I was playing super tryhard now, hanging upside down above a window thermite was about to blow up.

Seconds before he blew it he died, shot through the head. Pulse was probably on the inside. Dropping lower and shooting through, I took him out before moving to another window.

When the round ended with my clutch ace, I shot out of my seat forgetting about the pain.

"YES! SUCK THAT TOONZ!" I shouted, wiggling my bum and waving my hands around in a victory dance.

The leaderboard showed 13 kills and 5 assists, and I was easily team MVP. My smirk was cocky as hell as I turned to him, placing a hand on my hip.

"God Dayum! You went off!" He praised with a grin, and I chuckled. Admittedly, I likely got so many kills because my team sucked, but who cares. That was an amazing game. 

Dropping back onto the couch with a wide smile, I stretched my arms above my head.

"That was so good." I sat the controller down, along with the headset, and turned to my friend, who was glancing at his phone.

"That was amazing. I should probably head out soon though." He said, turning the screen to me. 4:05pm.

Shortly after, I was standing at my door watching as his car drove off down the street. Turning back and heading to the kitchen, I pulled out some wraps to make a simple dinner. A PB&J wrap, considering most of the food in my fridge had gone bad during the time I wasn't here and I hadn't gone shopping for more yet. Although with the recurring issue, I should probably hold off on milk and meats.

Maybe I should go shopping after I've eaten. And maybe showered. 

Yawning, I headed to my room, wrap in hand, and started gathering anything I'd need for a shower.

Hopefully this would take a while, I need things to distract me. I don't want to fall back to sleep yet, tomorrow night or something. Hopefully I land in a game I can get some rest in still though.

Unfortunately, it took 2 hours to shop- because I took as long as I could, and one to shower and prepare, and maybe sing in front of the mirror a little. I haven't sung in a while ok? I needed practice. 

Why am I justifying myself, to myself? 

By the time I put my groceries away, it was only around 9pm.

I wandered to my room to take my phone off charge, glancing around my dark room. The blue walls seemed to absorb the nights light and leave the room in a lulling darkness, making my eyelids feel heavy as they fluttered up and down. 

Pulling off my shirt and grabbing the hem of my jeggings, I wiggled them off and left them on the floor. Dropping myself onto my bed and sliding under the sheets was probably a bad idea, the familiar comfort of my mattress and the soft pillows was the worst temptation ever to sleep. Nothing like your own bed.

Bringing up Twitter to distract myself, I noticed a few more follows. BasicallyIDoWrk, Cartoonz, Ohmwrecker, and MiniLadd.

I had messages from friends asking where I'd been, why I was so inactive, and if I was ok. But I just wasn't prepared to answer them, so instead I opened the group conversation, now named "OhmWreckToonzLunaLirious". I'm surprised it even fit.

I appeared at the top of the message spam, and with a shrug, started reading. It started off with concerned messages after my address drop, then Cartoonz saying he was leaving, a heap of concerned messages and Cartoonz reply of "She's fine. Fairly bad shape but getting better." 

Delirious was straight after the message with another of his own, determined to know my condition and if he was needed. I had to admit, there was a smile stretched across my lips at the moment in reply to how concerned he'd been for me. 

After a while they determined I was ok, and the conversation lulled for about an hour, before a photo of my stats in the game earlier was sent, and a few messages of praise to Cartoonz for how good that was.

I couldn't resist my smile shifting to a smirk when I read his message, directing the praise to me.

"CaRtOoNz- that's Lunas game, not mine! She destroyed them"

A few jokes were thrown around about team carrying and understanding the pain in my back, before Bryce had asked- "Can she be part of our group? We need someone actually good"

Delirious played mockingly offended and Ohm joked about a fivesome, to which Delirious replied that we needed a group ship name. It hadn't taken long for the name change following that. 

There was a while where Cartoonz had disappeared after sending the photo, presumably when he was driving home, but he came back in full swing with a joke about Delirious not getting too jealous. 

"H2O Delirious- I can't help it!"

"H2O Delirious- I just want you all to myself Luke!"

I was sent into fits of laughter from that, squinted eyes making it hard to continue reading. When I was calm enough to continue, I finished the rest. Admittedly, there wasn't too many.

They asked if it was cool to tell all the other guys who I was, because apparently everyone was super curious, and then started talking about their plans for the night. 

Cartoonz and Bryce had some editing, Delirious planned to catch up on sleep, and Ohm was recording. 

"LunaLirious- tell the other people, I don't mind. I'd be curious as hell if I were them, might as well keep them updated."

Pressing send, I smiled. Waiting to see if anyone would reply, I let my eyes flutter shut. 

Oops.


	26. Chapter 26

Tightening my fluttering lids against the light, I rolled over, cuddling back into my blankets with a deep sigh of content. I slept really well last night. 

Wait.

Shooting up, I threw my head left and right, eyes wide. There's my window, open curtains letting in bright sunlight, and my dark wood side table on my wooden flood boards. Looking down, I noticed that my stomach was bare, the blankets pushed down and revealing the same bra I'd fallen asleep in. Staring at my own pale skin, I thought hard. There was absolutely no recollection of anything happening during the night. Had I slept the entire night?

Poking my little stomach rolls with a giggle, I laid down and rolled closer to my side table, picking up my phone.

It was still only early, about 7am, and none of my notifications were from the group message. Opening it up, I typed out my message, almost bouncing with excitement.

"LunaLirious- Did I pop up in any games last night? Did no one play?" 

Ok, while I wait for a reply, my bladder is going to burst so...

_____

By the time my phone buzzed with a reply, I was sitting on my kitchen counter singing loudly with music. It'd taken a few hours, but they were probably all still asleep till now. Although, the reply was not what I expected.

"Ohmwrecker- I played with Vanoss, Mini, Lui, and Marcel. Like all night. We didn't see you at all?"

Pursing my lips, I clenched my free hand around the bottom of my knitted overtop, slowly sliding my thumb across my phone screen.

"LunaLirious- I went to sleep, but I slept all night. Do you think it's over?"

His reply was fast.

"Ohmwrecker- I think we should wait a few days to see, who knows."

_____

Currently, I was curled on the couch, laptop in front of me and opened to a page filled with businesses looking for workers. My search wasn't going well, all I had written on the sheet of paper I had was a small musical cafe that let poets and singers perform as quiet entertainment for customers. It wasn't exactly practical work, but I couldn't shake my childhood dream of being a singer.

Sighing and lifting my hand to rub my tired eyes, I glanced to the couch cushion beside me. It'd been a busy day of job searching, and I really wanted a nap. I suppose, now's as good a time as any to find out if I'll jump into a game again.

With a shrug, I laid down and yawned lightly, shutting my eyes.

It was almost like I blinked, my eyes closed away my warm living room and opened to a large warehouse building seconds later. Pushing myself up, I noticed with shock that I had no lower body. My torso and up was there, but as it got lower it was transparent, legs completely nonexistent. Or, invisible at least, because I could still entirely feel them.

Looking to my left, I noticed a long mirror, reflecting all the different sports equipment pieces spread around. Maybe a large gymnasium? Shrugging, I started toward a dart board, looking around the empty room as I went. The air was quite warm and the entire area was void of noise, leaving a strange feeling in its place.

Stopping next to the wooden bench near the board, I picked up a dart and aimed. I'd played darts a lot in a smaller pub I used to visit when my aunt, or great aunt, used to work there, but she'd passed away from old age a year ago. I was never as god as a lot of the regulars, but they'd always encouraged me to join them in the games of pool or darts.

Throwing the first dart, I hit the 20 in the largest part, and smiled. Picking up my next dart, I aimed for the 19. It took a few attempts to land it, but it wasn't bad considering I hadn't played in a while. The first dart appeared on the table as I went to grab another, and I grinned at the convenience of it. 

While I played, I made sure to keep my ears alert for any movement around me, but no sound came. Surely if I appeared here, others were around. At that thought I decided that after my game, I'd search for people.

When I was at 13, there was a quiet swoosh sound across the room, followed by a pop, causing me to turn with a raised eyebrow. 

"Where did everyone go?" 

It was a voice I recognized immediately, so I called back to it.

"Delirious?"

 

Seconds later, a person materialized at the corner of a hall, before disappearing again. Not that they were hard to re-find, as anywhere they left or appeared, the same swoosh and pop followed. 

They had a blue torso shape, and a head hovering above it with brown hair poking out from under a viking hat. A hovering hand raised up beside them when they spotted me, and they waved.

"Hey Luna."

Within seconds, Delirious appeared in front of me, and I stumbled backwards in surprise. 

"Woah, it's like you're really here!" The large palms raised up, pressing against my cheeks gently. "Well, you're a little pixelated, but the Vive does that a bit." He added, voice coming through a shitty mic, noise symbol appearing above his head each time he spoke. 

"Guess I'm not out of this mess then, hey?" I grumbled a little, before plastering a large smile across my face when I realised I didn't even say hello. "Also hey Del, how're you?!" 

His laughter filled the quiet room, and the mouth on the face changed to a smile.

"I'm good, you?"

"I'm pretty good, a bit tired." I said, yawning automatically at the thought.

"But you got sleep last night?" He asked, walking past me and taking a dart.

"Was searching for a job all day, I got fired when I got stuck in GTA..." I trailed off, watching as he launched a dart and completely missed.

"Oh... Dude that sucks. I'm sorry." He said, glancing over to me, and I sighed and frowned, deciding to voice my concerns I'd been thinking about all day.

"Its just, what do I do to pay for my house when I can't even stay awake to work shifts? And what about when I'm recovering from getting out of a game?" 

I just watched him play darts in silence for a while, before he turned back to me. 

"We just have to find out why you didn't go into a game last night." He said decidedly, walking toward me and placing his hands on my shoulders. "Now, cheer up! Lets go play charades to take your mind off of it all. We'll work it out." His hand drops to mine, grabbing it in the surprisingly warm clasp of his own. Then we teleported, materialising across the room in the blink of an eye. It threw me off slightly, but as I stumbled into Delirious' characters torso, we disappeared again, appearing in a new spot with a pop. 

"What about the guys? Are you recording?" I mumbled, trying to think through the dizziness I was feeling. 

"I never record VR, I was playing online, but everyone disappeared when you got here." He said, dragging me toward a door with laughter bubbling from him.


	27. Chapter 27

Giggling, I looked at the panel again, before moving to the centre of the stage. How to act out diving. Shouldn't be too hard, right?

Lifting the tool gun into the air, I started drawing a 3D diving board to the best of my ability, which was admittedly not that good. The coloured goo floated in the air as I formed the shape, and immediately Delirious started shouting guesses.

"Ladder! Stairs! Uhm, giraffe!" 

Giving him a 'are you serious?' look, I shook my head. I was now adding the diving board part, and yeah, it looked like a head on a long neck. But I wasn't going to admit that out loud. 

"It's an action!" I called out to the man at the edge of the stage, on the lower level, knowing my art skills and his guessing skills alone weren't going to lead to a smooth round. 

"An action? Giraffes eat. Trees! It's eating trees! Eating!"

Jumble flowed from his mouth as I pouted, stepping back from my art and thinking. 

"This!" I put my arms above my head, one palm flat over the other, and jumped before bending, pretending to dive. 

"Bending? Taking it up the butt? Anal! Is it anal? With giraffes?" A snorted laugh came through before loud chuckles flooded the room, and I face palmed.

"No giraffes! This-" I pointed at the drawing- "isn't an animal!" But my grumbles were hardly audible over the loud laughter echoing off the walls, and they were making the frown on my face difficult to maintain.

"I'm so done! We're done! It's diving! How did you even get anal?!" My lip corners twitched, and I turned to march to the button as a smile split across my face, hoping he didn't see me crack.  

The button cleared all signs of goo from the stage, before I sat the gun on the desk and walked to the stage edge, dropping to sit.

We'd been at this for an hour, if not more, and I was too tired to continue by this point. Plus I was distracted with a thought I'd had half way through, which had stuck to the front of my mind since then. I was hesitant to bring it up and ruin the mood, but there wasn't too much of a choice on my part anyway.

"Are you alright?" Delirious asked as his laughter faded. "What's up?"

Turning my head sideways from watching the air where my swinging feet would be, to looking at Delirious, I pursed my lips. 

"Hey, it's all good, I'm here to talk." He comforted as he moved to stand in front of me, hand raising to my chin. 

Feeling it gently lifting my face was weird, especially because of Delirious' radiant heat which could be sensed in the palm of the obviously fake character. 

"Uh, I was just thinking, right?-"

"I thought I could smell something burning." He cut me off, and I laughed lightly before punching his shoulder. "Ow, hey!"

"Bitch." I laughed, before continuing. "So, hear me out. It could be coincidence, but every game I've been in has been yours. So maybe,-"

"Not mine, Vanoss was hosting GTA and gangbeasts." He added, but I brushed it off.

"You were in it I mean. You've been in everything. Maybe I only join your games?"

There was a moment of silence while he thought it over, and his hand dropped from my chin, both moving to rest on the ground beside me instead. 

"It could... It could make sense." He agrees, characters head shifting to meet my eyes. "That could be why you slept last night, because I wasn't gaming." 

I could hear the realisation in his tone, matching the same thing spreading across my face. Blinking my wide eyes, I slowly nodded. I'd just thought it a possibility, but it worked really.

"Why though?" 

"I... Uh, I don't know. We can work this out right?" He mumbled, guilt seeping through his tone and deepening the frown on my face.

"Yeah of course, I can just get a job with night shifts and sleep through the day or something, you record at night right?" I questioned, trying to work my way around his schedule, but he was having none of that. 

"I do, but I'll just start recording earlier and edit at night instead."

Pursing my lips, I stopped looking at his character model and instead at my fidgeting hands.

"This isn't your fault, you don't have to change things up. It'll-" he cut me off half way.

"It's not yours either! Don't worry about it." The determination in his tone surprised me a little, and before I realised I was softly nodding my head. 

"Thanks."

My mumbled word didn't feel like enough, and within seconds I wrapped the blue torso in my arms and squeezed. It felt weird at first when hands pressed against my back and pulled me in tight, but finally having a hug reciprocated was too nice a feeling, and I melted into his chest. 

Taking a deep breath, I shut my eyes, shifting so my forehead was pressed to the chest.

"You're tall." I mumbled, laughing a little at the randomness of my comment. When he laughed, it almost felt like I could feel his chest vibrating. 

When he stopped laughing, he dropped his hands and I immediately moved back, heading to the edge of the stage to take my previous seat. 

Before I climbed up I heard a wooshing sound, and as I sat I noticed a body hovering close to the ground beside me, probably sitting cross legged.

For a while we were silent, most likely both caught in our own thoughts. If he recorded throughout the day, that would work wouldn't it? I'd be able to sleep properly and not corrupt any files. Assuming we were right in that it was only his games.

A deep sigh caught my attention as I turned to the friend beside me. I could call him a friend right? We've only known each other for a few weeks but it wasn't exactly under normal circumstances...

"So, how do you get out of this game then?" He stood, and I followed his actions. "You have to, uh, die right?"

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I looked around the room. Could I die in this game? 

"I don't want to die again..." I trailed off in a small tone, before shrugging my shoulders in a defeated motion. It had to happen. "Ideas?"

When I looked up, I saw his eyes directed toward his hands, and it gave me likely the same idea he was having.

"We-I could..."

"Will it work though? Like, you're a real person, what if..."

"I can feel you, it's like it's real. What if it happens in real life? Whenever you did anything to us we felt it."

Nodding, I thought back, trying hard to make sure my voice didn't betray me and quiver in fear.

"When I hit Daithi with the car though, he only felt it. Nothing actually happened. Maybe it's just like when I die and wake up normally?"

Realistically, I was terrified. I'd only died two times and both times had sucked. 

Delirious was clearly having second thoughts, but I'd made up my mind.

"Do it."

"B-but, I'll feel it. What if- I could kill you." The fear in his normally confident voice almost made me rethink my decision, but if I didn't do this now, I'd probably be too scared to try anything else. 

"It'll be fine." It came out strong and I felt super grateful for the small achievement. 

Looking straight into the eyes of the character, I knew I was meeting his eyes for him. Not another word was spoken as he slowly lifted his hands, laying them against my cheeks as if I were made of porcelain, the most fragile thing he'd ever touched.

"What's your address again?"

Swallowing thickly, I told him, and he nodded. In a heartbeat his hands tightened, jerking to the side roughly. 

A loud pop echoed around the auditorium, and the body fell to the floor.


	28. Chapter 28

Huffing loudly, I tried to tilt my neck again, only to result in the same shooting pain I'd been experiencing all day. It was comparable to when you sleep really wrong and simply can't tilt your head in a direction, except that it was for every direction. 

When I'd woken up, I also had excruciating pain from every movement, fire shooting up and down my spine with every shift. 

I'd grabbed the phone next to my head, and immediately send a message to Delirious, hoping he'd see it. 

"LunaLirious- I'm fine, bit of discomfort in my neck. Don't show your face just cos I'm a little uncomfortable man, I respect your privacy."

Tears where sliding down from the corners of my eyes by the time I managed to complete it and send it off, and when I dropped my phone to my chest I laid completely still, praying I wouldn't need to sneeze.

Hours passed and no sound came from my front door, nor my phone, but I took that as a good sign. I respected Delirious' privacy, and he hadn't shown anyone yet for a reason. I didn't want him to show me just because I landed this sucky situation. 

There was also the worry, the not wanting to meet the man and stress about the feelings that would cause my speech to jumble and heart to flutter.

How silly that I was developing feelings on a guy I'd never actually met, a guy I realistically knew only little about.

But he was so nice, so caring. Funny and happy, and even just hearing his voice could lift my mood. It was one thing enjoying his content on YouTube, but a whole other to know that his personality was genuine, his humour was real. 

Eventually I got sick of my thoughts and forced myself to my lounge room, where I was currently sitting on the couch. 

Id gotten a message earlier for a job interview in two days, but the shifts were through the day. Not night ones. Savings could only go so far though, and I wasn't planning on turning down employment. I'd work around it. 

Delirious had said he could record through the day anyway, so maybe it'd work out fine, I could work and sleep and it'd all be ok.

The morning eventually came, as did a message from Delirious, saying that he was glad I was ok.  

Smiling, I decided it'd be best to talk it through with him about my job and see if it really was ok for him to work through to day. Probably better for his sleep schedule anyway, right? 

"LunaLirious- so... I got a job interview tomorrow, it's day shifts."

Leaving it simple, I rolled my lip into my mouth and started chewing, noticing that speech bubbles popped up in record time. He must've been waiting for my reply. 

"H2O Delirious- so I'll record during the day. I'm sure you'll go well"

"LunaLirious- sure that's ok? You don't have to, I can keep looking and find somewhere with night shifts."

The edges of my mouth were tilted up, but my brows were furrowed in slight guilt. 

"H2O Delirious- it's fine xD tell me how it goes!"

Letting out a breath I didn't know I was holding, I finally let myself smile again. Delirious was too kind.

"LunaLirious- I appreciate it man, thank you a heap."

"H2O Delirious- you're welcome. Anyway wassup?"

_____

The following day, I was sat in the cafe i'd been looking at that allowed performers throughout the day. I figured if I couldn't sing, I could at least see if they wanted waitresses or anything. 

The whole room was bright from the large windows on the front, and was themed with a dark and light brown, soft pink scattered around in the form of a single stripe centre of the walls, dividing the light brown at the top from the dark at the bottom, and pink swirls and patterns on the tabletops.

To my luck, they'd just had someone quit due to moving. The older woman who'd interviewed me was very nice, and the guy and girl who'd been working were laughing and smiling. 

The air was filled with quiet chatter and a delicious aroma, fresh coffee and cookie scents filling my nose with each inhale. Needless to say, it seemed like a good place to work. 

Now, I was just sat, watching a guy on the small stage strum a song on an acoustic guitar. A gentle tap to my shoulder startled me and I spun, blue eyes catching with the soft brown of the female worker.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." She said in a quiet voice, smiling to me in a calming way. "Can I join you?"

Giggling softly to myself at how I'd jumped, I nodded to her.

"I'm on break, so I figured I'd get to know our new worker. I'm Alessia." 

"Luna." I smiled at the friendly girl.


	29. Chapter 29

Walking through the door of my house, I flipped the light switch on and groaned at the light. The cafe had been busy today, and now that I was past my three week introduction stage, I'd been thrown right into the frenzy.

It wasn't hard, but I'd still developed a pounding headache. Heading to the kitchen to grab some tablets and water, I glanced up to the clock. 8:23pm.

Nodding to myself, I went to the cupboards, wondering idly what I could make for dinner as I prepared the medicine. A buzz against my leg caught my attention and I slid my phone out from my pocket with my free hand as I lifted my cup of water to my mouth, glancing around the glass to the screen.

"H2ODelirious- you offfff yettt?" 

Smiling at my new friend, I swallowed and placed the cup down, heading to the lounge room, the idea of food not entirely appealing.

As soon as I entered the dark room, I headed for the couch, dropping down into the soft cushions and sighing out.

Turning down my phone brightness, I unlocked it and went to Twitter.

"LunaLirious- indeed I am, shift finished at 8 like I said it would :p"

It only took seconds before a the typing bubbles appeared, and with a small 'buzz', a reply appeared soon after.

"H2ODelirious- no more work for a day!!! :D"

With a small laugh, I sent a few praying hand emojis, silently preening because of the fact he'd remembered my schedule and day off.

"H2ODelirious- any plans for tomorrow?"

"LunaLirious- lots and lots of sleep. I can afford to be lazy, I shopped earlier today."

Rolling to glance toward the kitchen, still illuminated by one of the two lights I'd bothered turning on, I pursed my lips. I bought a packaged salad earlier, I should eat that. 

Groaning, I threw an arm over my face and flopped onto my back.

'Buzzzz'

"H2ODelirious- if you're sleeping a heap, do you mind staying up late so I can record some with the guys then?"

Peaking out from under my arm, I frowned at the polite tone the message seemed to have. Normally it was more 'stay up with me loser' or 'you're my bitch, do what I say!!'. 

"Lunalirious- of course. Everything all good?"

Of course, I could be interpreting the message wrong, but I'd noticed that the past videos had been solo. The first few had some of the guys, but they were likely already recorded. Maybe he just wanted to post some solo things though? He did do that...

When he replied with a simple 'everything's fine (:', I couldn't help but not trust it.

_____

Another week passed, and I couldn't help but notice Delirious also wasn't in any of the newer videos on other channels, aside from Vanoss'. 

But, I'd seen the same game on Marcel's channel, meaning that was older footage that he just took a while to edit. 

Rolling my lip into my mouth and biting, I turned to my phone on my bedside table. It was around 4am, and while I knew I should be sleeping, I couldn't manage to find its embrace. 

Picking it up, I opened Twitter and opened those messages I was in far too often lately. Not that I was complaining.

The last message was a goodnight message from Delirious, at about 11pm. 

I'm meant to be sleeping.

Sighing, I started typing out something I knew I'd probably regret.

This is dumb, this is so dumb...

"LunaLirious- Hey Del, I got called in for work and I'm on break, I have good news! :D"

Hopefully he falls for this, it's not entirely believable....

Rolling out of my bed, I trotted off to the bathroom to pee. When I got back, there was a reply. 

He's meant to be sleeping too.

Trying to push my worries away, I read his reply.

"H2ODelirious- good news? What's up?"

"LunaLirious- shouldn't you be asleep? Did I wake you?"

Admittedly, I never was good at pushing my worries away.

"H2ODelirious- it's just habit, I'm used to staying up. It's nothing tho. What's the news?"

Oh man, I'm so stupid. Obviously his sleeping patterns weren't just going to change. Had he been sleeping enough then? He can't sleep through the day now, he's busy recording and such. Maybe he records at day and edits at night? 

My lip was surely bright red at all the gnawing I was doing, and as soon as I noticed, I forced myself to release it. 

Id had a realisation a few days ago, that everyone else wasn't going to change their schedules just for me. Meaning, group recording sessions were probably a lot harder now for Delirious. This, coupled with the concern for his health, cemented my late night decision.

And I know well enough by now that I'm far too easily swayed by emotions, when it's late night or early morning.

The fragile times when everything is lit in soft blue light and the world is a whole new place.

Let's just hope this doesn't mess up my normal world, any more than it already has been at least. I can do this right? Yeah, of course I can. I'll just sleep during the day, before or after my shifts. A few hours is plenty, I don't do much.

"LunaLirious- I managed to get night shifts! You can go back to your normal schedule! :D"

Fingers crossed.


	30. Chapter 30

The first two days were fairly easy. Staying awake all night wasn't something new to me, and by 7am I was tired enough to fall asleep.

Waking up was a little harder, but a little before 12 I rolled out of bed, put on the clothes I'd laid out, and was out the door.

Next time, I should sleep earlier.

A message to Delirious after that shift, confirmed that he'd be asleep before 6, and I was safe to sleep at that time.

The next few days were alright, the extra hour much appreciated.

Nights were a slight struggle to stay awake, and 6am was more of a relief than it was in the fnaf games. 

By the end of the first week, I was certain humans weren't meant to be entirely nocturnal. How did the guys do it? Maybe just more hours?

The eighth day, I entered work, waving slightly at the guy I was working with today, who id found out was Joel. He was as friendly as he'd seemed the first day I saw him, when he was talking with Alessia. His scruffy red hair and freckles only managed to highlight his bright white teeth, whenever he smiled, which was often. 

"You alright?" He called in the raspy bass tone you wouldn't expect him to have, and as I tried to reply, a yawn escaped me. 

"You look like you're about to fall asleep." He chuckled, and I shrugged half heartedly as I tied my apron at the back.

"You're not too far off. I need coffee." 

Immediately, he grabbed a cup from behind him, and gestured to the cash machine.

"I'll pay if you don't want to get it, you need this." He said decisively, starting to make a cappuccino. 

Laughing, I pulled my bag off my shoulder and dug out my wallet, like I was about to do anyway.

The strong smell hit my nose as I passed Joel, and I couldn't help the smile on my face. Admittedly, I was loving working here. Not everything was going shitty.

Joel was nice, Alessia was nice. The elderly owners were lovely too. There were three other people who did morning or lunch shifts, and one casual worker who didn't come in often, none of which I'd properly met. But Alessia had assured me they were all great too, and I trusted her judgement on the topic.

"Milk and 2 sugars." I said as I finished paying, also grabbing a muffin from the glass cabinet beside me. 

Admittedly though, as tired as I was, I wouldn't change my situation. Meeting all the youtubers I watched and loved was just a dream for most people, and despite the circumstances, I'd gotten to speak with most of my favourites. And that was worth being tired.

_____

Sitting down at a table with a cheese and ham croissant fro dinner, I pulled my phone from my pocket. Instead of seeing a message from who I expected, I spotted a Twitter notification from Cartoonz.

The words across my lock screen had me drowning in confusion. 

"CaRtOoNz- Don't you work in a cafe?"

Deciding to voice my thoughts, I quickly typed back.

"LunaLirious- yeah? How'd you know?"

"CaRtOoNz- delirious told me"

It should have been obvious, but still it made my cheeks heat at the thought of him talking about me casually. I wonder what else he'd said. 

"CaRtOoNz- which one?"

The question was really random, and I was only getting more lost, but still I answered with the name. 

What a mistake.

When he didn't reply straight away, I started checking other apps, replying to friends and checking likes.

'CaRtOoNz shared a photo with you.'

Clicking on the notification, I froze when it loaded, before swearing under my breath. 

A screenshot of a Google search was on my screen. More specifically, a search of the cafes opening and closing hours. And it clearly closed at 8pm.

He clearly caught on and there was no point making excuses, so instead I went straight to pleading.

"LunaLirious- don't tell him. He didn't work it out did he?"

"CaRtOoNz- there's a few 24h cafes around, I just knew none were near you and wanted to check. I don't think he'll realise."

Grumbling about the mans intelligence, I shifted in my seat, glancing around to see Joel serving someone and Jackie, one of the elderly owners, smiling and waving toward me.

Planting a smile on my face, I waved back to the woman, before looking back down. 

"LunaLirious- you aren't going to tell him tho? Please don't. It doesn't really matter anyway, he doesn't need to know..."

"CaRtOoNz- when are you sleeping? You haven't popped up in any games."

He brushed off my question, and I decided to just answer him, praying I'd be able to convince him it was fine. Well, half answer.

"LunaLirious- I just go to sleep at 6, I work nights so it's fine."

"CaRtOoNz- so you're getting enough sleep?"

Deciding to lie, I wrote a confirmation, but before I got to send it another message popped up.

"CaRtOoNz- when do your shifts start? If you lie I'll tell him."

Scowling, I looked at the time, noticing my break was almost over. He wouldn't catch out a lie anyway, how could he? Stuffing the rest of my food into my mouth, I stood up. 

"LunaLirious- I do, I work 5 hours. I start at 3, it's plenty of time (: anyway breaks over. Please don't tell him."

Locking my phone, I slid it back into my pocket, heading towards a laughing Joel and smiling Jackie.


	31. Chapter 31

I had to admit, CaRtOoNz was determined. But so was I.

He came in to the quaint cafe the following day, right as the clock hit 1:30pm. As soon as I saw him passing the front windows, I dropped to the floor in a desperate attempt to hide. 

Alessia shot me a strange look, and I gave a confused shrug. What else was I meant to do?

"Reddish brown beard can't know I'm here."

I whispered, and immediately her gaze shot up to the door as it pushed open. Smiling, she whispered through her teeth at me.

"Crawl out the back, quick."

Glad I'd mopped the floor only recently, I army crawled toward the backroom doorway as quietly as I could, heart pounding loudly. 

As I was sliding around the corner, I heard a familiar voice follow me through.

"Hey, I was just wondering if you know Luna? She works here." Luke asked in a friendly tone, and I held my breath as I waited for the reply.

"Uh, I might have heard the name? I'm fairly new..." She trailed for a second, before continuing, "I'm really sorry I can't be of much help."

It shocked me how worried her normally confident voice sounded, and I couldn't help but feel again happy for the people I'd landed as coworkers.

"It's alright." The youtuber replied, a smile in his tone. "If still like to order, would you like something?"

For a brief second I thought he was flirting with Alessia, until a soft voice came in reply, making me smile. Girlfriend maybe? Just a friend?

Resisting the urge to look around the corner, I sat with my back against the wall, waiting for him to leave. 

After the register clicked shut, I expected to hear the door, but I didn't even hear footsteps. Instead, a buzz came from beside me, making me jump on the spot. Yanking out my phone, I opened settings to turn vibrate off, switching it just in time for a second message to appear.

Heart still in my throat, I opened Twitter and the message, silently growling at the man. Why was he even being so stubborn about this? He didn't know me, not really. Well, I'd like to think we'd become friends, but not close enough for him to really stress over my sleeping. Maybe just because of the unusual situation? Or maybe he's just a decent person.

Sighing quietly, I pushed away the slight guilt of lying, and sat patiently. It was into a few minutes before Alessia rounded the corner, demanding to know what was going on.

Standing up, I checked for myself that the coast was clear, before brushing myself off and going back to the counter. 

"Well, it's a bit complicated, but basically he thinks I start work at 3, and I don't want him to catch me out." I answered the questioning brown eyes, simplifying everything the best I could. I couldn't exactly explain the entire truth anyway.

She leant against the counter, studying my face for a second.

"You're safe though? It's not a bad situation?"

Waving my hands in front of me quickly, I assured her it wasn't with a laugh in my voice.

She was cut off when another customer came in, and she immediately went to serve them. When I heard it was only coffee, I headed into the back room to check the messages I'd forgotten to read.

"CaRtOoNz- you can't just avoid sleep. It'll catch up with you."

"CaRtOoNz- I won't tell him but he's gonna find out eventually anyway."

Not bothering to reply, I just closed the app and headed out to check if we needed to cook any more things.

After a while, Alessia and I were settled in a busy silence, both working at making different foods to fill the depleting stock out front. But then a small laugh caught my attention.

Lifting my gaze, I met sights with the messy girl across the table, a gloved hand pressed to her mouth. 

Her cheeks were starting to go red, and I'm not sure why, but I found it funny. Sniggering a bit at her, I crossed my eyes and poked my tongue out, which resulted in a small raspberry sound from her lips, and a second hand flying to help hold back her laughter. She covered her eyes, and I could just quietly hear her starting to count upward.

Laughing quietly was enough to throw her off, and she burst out laughing, still trying to contain it in vain. But the flood walls had broken. 

Her joy was contagious, and it wasn't long before I was joining her, face buried in my palms. 

Luckily the only person in the cafe was the older singer who sounded to be tuning her guitar, not bothered by two crazy girls.

When Alessia finally started regaining control, she spit out a single sentence, before bursting into giggles. 

"I have to admit, it was pretty funny watching you worm your way out the door."

Imagining myself from her point of view, the tears finally started forming in the corners of my eyes, and I clutched my stomach.

We were still giggling half an hour later when Jackie found us, just finishing making another batch of cookies. 

She raised one eyebrow, looking between us.

"What's got you two giggling?"

The recently regained control was thrown to the wind and it took a while before Jackie could get a full sentence from either of us.


	32. Chapter 32

Coming home with a large smile across my face, I grabbed leftover veggies and heated them, heading to set up my Xbox and get situated on the couch.

Content and comfortable, I started dozing a little while into playing of GTA. 

I knew Cartoonz was right, but I definitely hoped I'd hold out longer.

______

Blinking a few times against the bright sun, I turned my head to the side, noticing a two story building right beside me. Awkwardly pushing myself to my feet, I walked towards its blue door. 

I couldn't see anyone around, but I could hear some banging above me, so I set off to find some stairs. 

I was moving slowly, making sure no one saw me, when I passed a window, catching sight of my reflection.

Peering down to myself, I looked normal, aside from the ever present watch on my wrist. But looking back up to where I was reflected, I saw the classic T-pose position. Legs together and arms out from my sides at almost a 45 degree angle. 

So, I'm in gmod. What game mode though?

An explosion from upstairs caused me to leap, hand flying to my chest in panic. Running toward a wall, I crouched down, hiding myself as best I could until I knew what was happening.

Was I so sure I wanted them to find me actually? Assuming Delirious is here, he's probably going to be angry. I flattened further against the wall.

It sounded like multiple people were trashing a room somewhere to my upper left, and I could only hope that meant I was safe, for now at least.  

Taking a deep breath, I leant towards the door frame, cautiously peering around it. All clear. 

Scrunching my nose at the slightly dusty air, I stood and brushed off my pants, before rounding the corner. Nothing moved, and I tried to keep my footsteps as silent as possible, in case there was someone else on the ground floor. 

As I entered a room that could be a kitchen, considering there were a few stoves scattered through, I heard the racket now above me fall silent. 

Pursing my lips, I moved toward one of the windows to see if I could open it and climb through, only to spot something odd. 

Moving across the front lawn, was the shell of a car. Blue, to be exact. 

I snorted quietly at the obliviousness of the seekers as I realised what game I had been pulled into playing. Looks like I need to find a prop.

Glancing again around at my options, I decided to backtrack to one of the rooms I'd glanced at on my path here. The room was still empty, walls hideously striped, couches still in the same spot at the end of the long space. But I ignored those, turning my attention instead to the two book cases in front of me.

Now... How to become a prop. 

I picked up a book that was settled amongst others, sighing when nothing happened. Tightening my grip in frustration at my own stupidity, I turned my arm to get a view of the watch. Tapping it brought up its screen, showing me the typical gmod menu options. Nothing new.

I groaned under my breath, but only partially heard the noise under the thundering footsteps coming down the stairs.

I could feel my heart rate pick up as glanced to the shut door, before turning and hastily dropping the book on the others.

Running my eyes and hands over the frames of the window beside me in hope for a latch, I swore when I couldn't find one. Lashing out at the wall, I panicked when the watch caught the wooden side of the shelf, letting off a violent buzz against my skin.

Please don't be broken.

Before I could even check it, I saw a flash of black, almost as if the lights were switched off then on, and my vision was higher than previous.

I felt taller, I felt foreign.

Looking down to see why I felt so odd, I almost cried out to see a bookshelf instead of my body. I felt like my limbs were still there, just not within view. It was disconcerting to say the least.

Still, I brushed off the shock and turned to the book I'd had previously. Picking it up, I noticed an almost transparent ghost of an arm keeping it raised. Lifting the other, I squinted to see the watch, before pressing it against the book.

Again, the room flashed black.

Then became giant.

To my surprise, the book in my hands felt no heavier than it had before, despite it being the same size as me now. Awkwardly wrapping my arms around it, I placed it on the ground shelf, then took off running to the couches.

Normally, a prop probably wouldn't fit under them, but I felt confident that I could. Unlike normal props, I can lay down. 

Just as I reached the couch, the door swung open, and I inhaled deeply. Sliding myself under the furniture piece, I prayed they hadn't seen me. I wonder what the teams are? Surely I could check with the watch somehow. But it's not really important.

If they hadn't spotted me, surely they could hear my pounding heart. 

But within probably 20 seconds, although it felt like longer, they took off running. Gunfire started outside and I was sure they had found whoever had been the car. Or maybe someone else was out there too.

A second gun joined in for a short period before everything fell quiet. Was that not the last person? 

I glanced down at my barely visible arm, wishing desperately to see the timer of the round. 

Time ticked away, the sweat on my palms only getting worse as it went. 

Then, the watch lit up with a buzz.

'(All)I_Am_Wildcat: fjsibeif'

Frowning at the jumble, I poked it, and a keyboard popped up. Shaking my head, I turned my attention back to the open door.

'(Team)H2ODelirious: ?'

The noise made me jump, and I whacked my head on the couch bottom with a curse, not expecting more messages to come.

Nor did I expect voicechat to become active.

"I heard it too, and I think you're right Basically."

"Can we follow the sound then?"

"Yeah, everyone's gotta keep quiet though. At least the game isn't frozen or glitching." Evans voice came through again in reply to Marcel, and I huffed. Damn it.

Instead of a message though, a third voice spoke through the in game mic.

"Just come out, we know you hear us Luna." 

Delirious sounded so crestfallen that guilt immediately flooded me. Of course they knew it was me, why else would they have used the in game mic? They'd have to be in Skype or discord together already. 

Crawling out, I brought up the keyboard again, not feeling up to speaking.

"(All) :Back room w/ couches."


	33. Chapter 33

Crawling out from under the couch, I faced the two seekers, Vanoss and Basically, who looked giant to my small book size. 

There was an awkward pause of silence that I didn't have any intentions of breaking as I sat on death row.

But clearly Wildcat was getting impatient.

"So why're you here? There goes that footage." He groaned out, sounding serious but not judgemental. A small bit of guilt pinged my heart but I knew he wasn't angry at me for it. Or assumed from the tone, at least.

'(All) :I fell asleep, I'm sorry..'

A sigh came through voice, at the same time as Evan said; "It's alright."

Not wanting to stick around in the awkward conversation, or even wanting to speak, I quickly cut to the chase.

'(All) : anyone got a noob tube left? Bullets take longer :/'

I knew it sounded casual, but I was no less terrified now for the pain than I was the first time. You'd think the anxieties would wear off because I knew what to expect, but still my invisible hands shook violently as they moved across the keys. 

"I-uh-" Marcel started, voice unsure-"I have mine."

Delirious, who'd been fairly silent, spoke up. 

"Why're you here Luna?" It was a question that I'd been asked, but it meant a lot more this time. I was supposed to be at work, busy on my shift. Not asleep at home. "If you weren't working you could have told me."

Gnawing on my lip, I brought up my fingers to again type, but paused at Wildcats voice.

"What's work got to do with this?"

I waited for Delirious to reply, not typing anything yet.

"She... It's only my games. That she pops up in, I mean. So I was recording during the day while she worke-"

"Is that why you couldn't record?" Basically cut in, and I frowned at the confirmation of what I'd suspected to be true.

"Yeah. Anyway, you got night shifts. I thought I was safe to record? If you were off you could have just said!" His voice was starting to raise and I was grateful they couldn't see me slightly cowering down under the firm voice. "Cartoonz new this was gonna happen. He messaged me that it might. How'd he know? How did he know?!" I was now sitting on the ground, arms wrapped around my knees, head resting on top. Of course Luke had said something, they were best friends after all. At least he didn't tell him. 

"Delirious." Vanoss cut in, voice soft, as if to calm him. All he got was a huff in reply, but that was enough for him. "Did you... You didn't have night shifts, did you?" 

"She did! How else could-" Delirious started again, before he was again cut short with a firm "Delirious.", this time the tone more warning than calming.

I started typing, before I paused and backspaced it all.

"Uh, no. The cafe closes at 8."

"How long were you doing this for? When did you sleep?" Marcel sounded concerned, and I couldn't help the small smile at his nice nature.

"Just a few weeks, I thought I could handle less sleep. My shift starts at 1pm, till closing, so I was sleeping from like 6 till 12." As I said it, I felt pathetic. Six hours sleep is plenty, I'm sure they survived on less all the time. But I couldn't even handle it.

"I could have-" Delirious started, tone a lot softer now, sad almost- "I can record during the day fine. I'm sure we can set up some sessions on the nights before your days off, or something. Solo stuff is fine."

"I can work with it." Tyler said over Evans noise of agreement, and I smiled to know they were willing to try for me. But it still didn't stop the tears of guilt. 

"It's uh, it's been almost two minutes. We have like 30 seconds left." Marcel cut in as a reminder, and I nodded, forgetting they couldn't see it.

"Go for it, shoot."

The gun swapped to the launcher, and I closed my eyes.

"Wait, what happens if-"

Evan was cut off by an explosion, and sudden searing heat.

_____

When my eyes opened again, there were white spots all over my vision, and a ringing in my ears. My entire body felt overly sensitive, and burnt to a crisp. There was a slight ache in a few joints, but nothing compared to the pain on outer layer of my body.

Although I knew my skin would be flawless, I was almost hesitant to look down, it felt as though it see blistering and red flesh everywhere. 

Swallowing thickly, I looked down to my phone as it buzzed beside me.

A message from... Vanoss?

That wasn't expected. The small amount I could see in the notification sparked my curiosity, and I gently moved my arm to grab my phone, growling as the sides of my fingers touched each other. Thankfully, I must have clenched my hand into a fist or something, because the inside of my fingers and palm were almost perfectly fine.

Entering Twitter, I ignored the pang I felt at no message from Delirious, and instead opened Evans.

"VanossGaming: I was thinking, what happens if you win a game? Have you tried?"

Furrowing my eyebrows, I typed back.

"LunaLirious: none of the games I've played could I win in I don't think..."

It wasn't until after sending that I thought of gang beasts, but I brushed it aside because I wasn't exactly in the best state at that time. Ir pic coming from the current crispy me.

"VanossGaming: well, we could try. Worst comes to worst it doesn't work."

I decided not to mention the fact that there were much worse things that could happen, and that at the very least I'd have to die again.

"LunaLirious: tell the guys. I'll try fall back to sleep.."

He replied with simple confirmation, and I sighed. By this point I was happy to try anything. 

Delirious had mentioned that Vanoss and a few others had taken to googling it and trying to think of ways that could help, though it'd been unsuccessful. I mean, how many people could help in this situation? 

Still, I appreciated it. And I think that in the very least, he deserves my trust and cooperation for trying to help out. 

Despite the pain, my exhaustion won over again, and I was back to 'dreamland'.


	34. Chapter 34

I woke up to arguing, and the uncomfortable sting of the sun against my skin. 

Groaning, I pushed myself onto my hands and knees, gasping as pain shot up my legs. 

"What is it kills her?! You don't know what's gonna happen!"

"She's willing to try despite the risks!"

"She's a human, Evan! This isn't just a game!"

The ferocity in Delirious' voice shocked me, but Vanoss bit back just as aggressively, the blue hooded seeker and owl masked hider on the lawn across the yard from me. Clearly they hadn't noticed my arrival.

I'd have thought it was just the two of them left, if it weren't for the barrel moving around beside the shed. 

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another seeker with a pig mask moving toward me as I leant against the building wall, and I smiled lightly. Do my facial expressions show?

"Can you walk? You can use my shoulder if you need."

Wildcats words intercepted the argument and completely silenced it, and I muttered a quiet "thanks man." As I placed my hand on his shoulder. Despite the joint aches only being mild, they were making it uncomfortable to stand and the assistance to walk wouldn't hurt.

A huffed laugh came through as we started walking toward the two idiots who were still in silence, and the barrel that was now moving around them instead.

"I'll never get used to that feeling dude, it feels like a ghost." Wildcat snorted, and I couldn't help but feel grateful for the light topic. Without his humour I'd probably have an anxiety attack at the moment. 

"If I were a ghost, you'd know. I'd haunt and terrorise your ass." I laughed, glancing across to the seeker, and wishing it was actually the man. It sucks not being able to see faces or anything.

"You'd haunt my ass alright, you pervert." 

Blowing out a raspberry in indignation, I hit his upper arm.

"You wish, if that's what I was after I'd go for someone with a better ass." I laughed, sticking my nose in the air.

"Like Delirious?"

Snorting in shock, I started coughing from my own spit, hitting him again twice. Marcel, and even Evan, laughed at my expense, softly in comparison to Tyler's loud wheezing.

We were stopped in front of them now but I knew my face was bright red, and I couldn't help but wish I was far away instead. Hiding my face in my hands, I flinched slightly at the touch, but was more focussed on trying to calm my spluttering. 

"We all know you'd like to see my ass." Delirious didn't sound as happy as normal, the joke a little forced, but it still caused Wildcat to laugh harder and my blush to deepen. Too bad my skin wasn't red to match the burn feeling, at least the damn blush would be hidden.

Trying to sound confident despite my raspy voice, I immediately quipped back with my own sassy comment.

"I was more thinking Vanoss, have you seen that fine man? Damn." I joked, winking across to the aforementioned man. 

I expected Delirious to joke back about how he agreed, or something similar, but instead he shocked me by moving to stand on my other side.

"Like hell, he can't have you!" He cried out, swinging his crowbar toward him once in warning.

Wildcats character slid away from my side, and I frowned toward him.

"Don't want to make him jealous." He answered my look, which immediately changed to a scowl. 

Poking Delirious' side, I grumbled slightly, not actually minding the banter at all. 

At the poke, he turned to me and sighed. 

"You're sure you wanna try this?"

I ran my teeth over my lip as the mood immediately dropped, and sighed.

"Might as well try everything, I can't just keep dying and ruining recordings." 

We lapsed into silence for some time, and when Delirious spoke again I knew the time was ticking low now.

"Hug?"

Ignoring the eyes of the others, I wrapped my arms tightly around his characters waist, leaning into his warmth and closing my eyes.

"We're at 20." Was muttered quietly from someone and I held tighter.

"10."

"9."

"8."

The timer ticked down, my watch beeping out as it reached 0.

Inhaling deeply, I caught my breath and held it. When nothing happened, I lifted my head to look around. Unwrapping myself from Delirious, I grabbed his hand instead, tingles shooting up my arm.

"Was that the last round, or?"

"Uh, Luna?"

Ignoring Delirious, I looked down to my tingling arm. My hand had stopped tingling, but now I couldn't even feel Delirious' hand against mine. It wasn't hard to see why.

My hand was gone, and my arm was disappearing, following the tingles like they were fire, leaving nothing in their wake. 

Tingles started in my other arm and a leg, and I dropped to my knees in panic. 

"Luna!" 

Another voice called, but I didn't know who it was. 

Tears had started lining my eyes, my sight blurry and my breathing rapid.

When the bottom of both legs were gone, I fell to my butt. Collapsing backwards, I stared at the blue sky. The burning feeling would be a welcome feeling instead of the tingles.

They didn't hurt, but knowing that they were possibly my end made them far worse.

Reaching my stump of an arm out to the masked man standing beside me, I wished I could grab for him.

I could hardly breath, sobs racked my body as I tried to call for help.

I couldn't tell if I made a noise, but I kept trying. It just tangled with the muffled sound coming from those standing over me.

I could no longer reach out, arms gone. I felt so helpless.

As the tingles reached my torso, they turned fierce, no longer a painless tickle. My throat felt raw from the noises that ripped from me, and within seconds I succumbed to the darkness.


	35. Epilogue

Groaning loudly, I rolled over, eyes flashing open when I almost rolled off the couch. I caught sight of my still on Xbox and panicked, leaping off the sofa to take out the game and turn everything off. 

My entire body was aching, making my movements slightly stiff. Guess that's what I get for sleeping on the couch. 

Rubbing my temple lightly with a shaking hand as the tv shut off and left my loungeroom in darkness, I grumbled under my breath. Stupid nightmare.

There'd been hazy figures gathered around me as I screamed, pure terror pumping through my veins. A sheen of sweat covered my body, cooling in the chill night air.

As I headed to my kitchen to grab a glass of water, a knock came from my front door, loud and frantic. 

I wouldn't deny that I jumped.

Who would be knocking at... Feeling my pockets, I realised I'd left my phone on the couch. But either way, it was surely past midnight. 

Hesitantly moving to my hallway, I put my eye up to the peephole, tying to ignore the loud banging.

The person on the other side were nothing but a shadow, something I had no intentions of opening the door too.

"Luna!"

I paused as I was creeping away, glancing over my shoulder.

"Luna! Are you ok?" 

Frowning, I glanced around. Picking up a vase off the hallway table, I moved back to the door.

They sounded really concerned, and knew my name... And if they kept being loud I'd get noise complaints from neighbours.

Sighing, I called back; "Be quiet! You'll wake people! Who are you?"

I almost thought they wouldn't hear me over the knocks, but they were clearly listening for me as immediately the noise stopped. 

"Luna! It's me! Delirious? Are you alright?"

At the name Delirious, I frowned. As in... H2O Delirious? It did sound like him. Was this a prank?

Sighing, I moved to switch the hall light on, then raised the pot to be ready.

"Luna?"

Carefully turning the handle, I jolted backwards as it was pushed inward and someone went to leap at me, before freezing.

The guy had fluffy black hair and shining blue eyes, the red surrounding them only highlighting the azure colour. The light reflected off his wet cheeks as he slowly raised his hands. 

"Are you... Are you ok?" A confused chuckle left his lips, sounding almost choked, but still familiar.

A random thought flashed through my mind, of jumping out of a helicopter into bright colours. That was... Surprisingly not the weirdest thing at the moment. 

"Delirious as in the youtuber? What the fuck are you doing at my door?" I dropped my arm, and as soon as it was down he rushed forward. Before I could try to defend myself, arms wrapped around me and a head tucked into my neck, despite the guy being like a head taller than me. 

Hesitantly, I wrapped my arms back around the man, slyly appreciating his sweet smell, like a fruity candy. 

"I was so worried." He inhaled deeply, before squeezing tighter.

"I, uh-" I cut myself off, letting my arms loose and waiting as he unwrapped himself and straightened up. "Come on in and we'll talk, I'm clearly missing something. Through there." I pointed him into the kitchen, watching his thin form pass through the doorway. He clearly worked out, but he still had a slim shape. 

Sighing, I closed the door and sat the case back down, before following the man into the now lit room. He'd found the light switch before making himself at home on top of the counter. 

Silently, I moved around, grabbing two glasses and filling them with water, handing him one without meeting his eye.

Leaning next to the sink, I took a few sips, before groaning. 

"Alright, so I have no idea who you are, aside from the possibility of you being H2O Delirious-"

"I am-" I held up a hand, finally meeting his pretty blue eyes. 

"Don't... Just..." But he continued talking.

"Do you not remember? Any of it? The beach? Sky diving?" He seemed sad at my confusion, and I felt guilty for being the reason he looked so upset.

My eyes squinted when he mentioned the skydiving, and I immediately thought of the wind in my hair, my body pressed against another warm one. Lights, a big city below, and a blue hoody.

Snapping back to reality, I realised my eyes were closed. Blinking them open, I caught the attentive look from Delirious before he looked down. 

"What else happened?" I asked, giving no explanation as I studied his face. His thick black eyebrows contrasted his pale skin, slight acne scars barely visible against his cheeks. His jaw line was solid, and nose slightly crooked I realised, as he looked back up at me.

"It was in GTA, you were stuck in there. Appeared in our game and corrupted our recordings." He chuckled quietly, and my eyes fluttered shut again. 

I was on an airport strip, people running around and laughing. There was a gun in my hand and car in front of me. And it didn't feel like my imagination, it felt just like a memory. 

The familiar voice flooded my ears as more things flitted across the back of my eyelids. Then I was on a couch, in pain. My couch.

My eyes shot open, becoming wide as I remembered plenty of times of pain.

"To leave the games we had to... We had to kill you. Luke came over one time after..."

Again I was pulled into my thoughts, but this time my eyes were open. I pushed myself from the bench, going to the couch to grab my phone, which was flooded with messages from youtubers I had admired for a long time.

Turning, I noticed Delirious standing right behind me, and smiled softly.

"I kinda remember. It feels like I got really drunk and now I'm picking up the pieces of the night before." I laughed softly, rocking on my heels as Del moved closer. 

"So do you remember how cute you looked in the Gang beasts onesie?" 

Immediately my cheeks flared, and I let out a flustered giggle. 

"How pretty you looked on the beach that sunset?" 

He moved closer again, hands settling gently on my waist. 

Without thinking, my eyes trailed down to his lips, and licked the side of my own. 

Slightly reaching up, I waited for him to close the gap, which he did. His lips were slightly rough, but he moved gently, turning his head slightly and letting his hands tighten. 

Biting at his lip a little, I opened my mouth and let him explore, sucking lightly on his tongue which tasted as sweet as he smelt. 

Whimpering as he got slightly rougher, I lifted my hands and tangled them in his hair, letting him walk me backwards and lay me on the couch.

One hand slipped a little up my shirt as his lips left mine and he trailed kisses along my jaw, nipping my neck and emitting another small mewl from me. I started toying with his hair as he sucked on my neck, finger tips rubbing circles on my hips. 

"Del." I panted lightly, catching his attention as he lifted his head, resting his forehead against mine.

"Jon, my name is Jonothan." He replied, and a pressed a butterfly kiss to the side of his mouth in reply.

"I still have some remembering to do I think. How about helping me remember... Over coffee?" I asked, relief flooding me as he flashed a dazzling smile. 

Dipping back down to press a collection of short kisses to my lips, he breathed words between them.

"That's a great idea."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We reach the end!! 
> 
> I really hope you enjoyed, and that the end was ok. I tried to pace it alright.
> 
> Even though it's not the best book ever, I'm so proud of myself for finishing it. I struggle to focus and procrastinate a lot so that's why there were large gaps between updates. 
> 
> But it's done! 
> 
> I know I can write better though, and now that I've proven to myself I can finish a book... Yes, that's right. New book! Except this time I'll finish it all before post and put it up all at once. XD


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